Ariana: [Taliban] Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said this week that 250 domestic and foreign firms have submitted their bids for the iron mine in Herat and lead mine in Ghor province. Esmatullah Burhan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, said that it is evaluating the bids and will soon announce
Ariana: Speaking at a press conference as part of the new ministerial accountability program, Shahabuddin Delawar, acting minister of mines and petroleum, said that the ministry signed contracts for the extraction of 158 small mines over the past year. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: With the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Pakistan has become Afghanistan’s most important natural resources market. Local sources in Takhar province say that hundreds of trucks carrying coal are being loaded and transported to Pakistan on daily basis from his province. According to sources, some Taliban officials and commanders are involved in the deal. Residents
Reuters: The hardline Islamist movement is now banking on its natural resources to survive. Landlocked Afghanistan has large mineral and fossil fuel deposits, most of them untapped. One Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistan had increased coal imports from Afghanistan and could be importing up to 500,000 tonnes per month. Click here
AP: The ancient Buddha statues sit in serene meditation in the caves carved into the russet cliffs of rural Afghanistan. Hundreds of meters below lies what is believed to be the world’s largest deposit of copper. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: Due to lack of security threats that Taliban insurgents were behind that, the former government could not utilize the national underground reserves. No doubt that Taliban now can extract them, as there is no rebels to create terror and insurgencies in the mining sites. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said Sunday that Chinese companies have been scouting ways to access Afghanistan’s lithium and copper mines. According to SIGAR’s tweet, “Afghanistan’s lithium deposits could be among the largest in the world, rivaling those of Bolivia.” Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The Financial Times recently reported that Afghanistan’s lithium reserves could compete with those of other countries. Lithium, like oil, is rapidly becoming a strategic product, said Elif Nuroglu, head of economics at the University of Turkey-Germany (TAU). Click here to read more (external link).
Ariana: Officials representing several Chinese companies are in Afghanistan to conduct on-site inspections of potential lithium projects, Reuters reported. Afghanistan is rich in resources ranging from copper, lead, zinc, gold, oil and gas, bauxite, coal, iron ore and rare earths. It also has large reserves of lithium, a key component used for the batteries of
Patsy Widakuswara VOA News October 16, 2021 WHITE HOUSE — U.S. officials and independent analysts reacted skeptically Friday to a Taliban claim that China is ready to invest billions of dollars in Afghanistan. White House press secretary Jen Psaki indicated the United States is more concerned with helping the Afghan people as the nation’s economy collapses