By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
January 11, 2026

A deadly confrontation at a gold mine in northern Afghanistan has cast new light on the Taliban’s push to expand gold extraction, raising questions about the largely unregulated operations and their foreign — mostly Chinese — backing.

The latest incident comes as the Interior Ministry of the Taliban government confirmed on January 7 that ongoing clashes from last week between officials of a contracted gold-mining company and residents of Chah Ab district in Takhar Province have left four people dead and five others wounded.

The dead included three local residents and one company employee, Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Matin Qane told reporters following the incident, adding that one company guard and one local resident have been arrested on murder charges and that the firm’s operations have been suspended while investigations are underway.

He neither mentioned the company’s name nor identified the victims, but the attack took place in an area known for its large number of Chinese or joint Afghan-Chinese mining ventures.

Residents say the confrontation started after the company began digging on agricultural and residential land, causing protests that led to violence, highlighting the mounting tensions around Afghanistan’s fast-expanding but murky gold sector under Taliban rule.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the country’s mineral resources, considered to be a pillar of economic recovery, have entered a new phase marked by limited oversight, rising foreign involvement led largely by China, and growing local opposition.

In November 2025, two separate attacks killed five Chinese nationals working at a gold mine near Tajikistan’s remote border with Afghanistan. It remains unclear who was behind the attacks, but reporting by RFE/RL found a history of mounting tensions and violence between locals and Chinese-backed mining operators over environmental issues and resentment caused by extracting the region’s mineral wealth.

“Unfortunately, there is no oversight in Afghanistan, and extraction mostly takes place in areas that are easiest to exploit,” Abdul Qadir Motafi, a veteran of Afghanistan’s mining industry, told RFE/RL, adding that public and independent oversight has been severely limited in mines contracted by the Taliban.

Frontier Mining Brings Added Environmental Problems

In northern provinces such as Badakhshan and Takhar, gold extraction has dramatically increased under Taliban-linked local leaders, with communities complaining that they are being displaced and excluded while others profit.

In Badakhshan’s Shahr‑e‑Buzurg district, about 50 kilometers from Faizabad, gold mining surged soon after the Taliban takeover.

Villagers who once panned riverbeds with basic tools saw their informal activities absorbed into a larger concession controlled by Taliban officials and Chinese partners using heavy machinery. Workers who spoke to RFE/RL say broad areas are now fenced off and guarded by armed men tied to influential figures, cutting local people off from land and water they previously depended on.

“Ordinary people can’t even approach within a kilometer,” one mine worker told RFE/RL, speaking on condition of anonymity, fearing possible repercussions.

The Shahr‑e‑Buzurg mining zone spans both state and private land, with Chinese companies and Taliban-linked figures reportedly exploiting state parcels, while private owners either dig themselves or sell plots to outside investors.

Residents estimate that more than 500 groups now operate in and around the district, including workers arriving from other provinces such as Kandahar and Helmand, increasing pressure on local ecology.

The mining operations’ impact to the environment is visible across northern river valleys. Villagers say that pistachio groves and grazing pastures have been destroyed, while dredging and diversion work has repeatedly altered the course of the Amu Darya, a major river in the region that also flows through Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

A community elder in Badakhshan, who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisal from the Taliban, said Chinese mining firms bring their own security forces from Kabul and operate with broad latitude while not making investments into the local community.

There are still no new clinics, schools, or bridges, he said, and profits flow primarily to companies, Taliban officials, and a small circle of local investors.

A Crucial Lifeline For The Taliban

The Taliban’s Mines and Petroleum Ministry has done little to challenge these local perceptions.

The regime has announced tenders for gold deposits in Badakhshan’s Raghistan and Shahr‑e‑Buzurg districts, but has not released contract texts, revenue figures, or environmental conditions. Nationally, the ministry promotes mining as a cornerstone of economic policy and has signed dozens of agreements with foreign, predominantly Chinese, partners, projecting large investment commitments in several provinces, including Takhar.

For the Taliban authorities in Kabul, the mining drive offers a crucial stream of hard currency amid sanctions and diplomatic isolation. Officials argue that foreign-backed projects will generate jobs and fund national development, pointing to headline investment figures and projected state revenue shares.

Economists and mining specialists, however, warn that exporting largely unprocessed ore under weak regulation risks leaving Afghanistan with depleted deposits, limited employment, entrenched patronage networks, and deepening inequality.

Azarakhsh Hafizi, the former director-general of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, told RFE/RL that Afghanistan must process more of its minerals domestically to build value chains and create sustainable jobs rather than relying on bulk exports of raw material.

“Exporting raw minerals indiscriminately has no positive economic effect. Our mines are depleted and we remain poor,” Hafizi said. “We should extract less but extract properly, process materials inside the country, and add value.”

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