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
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 2, 2021 The Taliban says China will maintain diplomatic relations with Afghanistan and the new rulers in Kabul will rely on Beijing for economic support after the withdrawal of U.S.-led international forces. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on September 2 that China was the group’s “main partner”
Time: Today, in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, Chinese strategists are thinking bigger, and eyeing deals to exploit Afghanistan’s mineral deposits. An Afghan parallel to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor—the $50 billion development of factories, power plants and pipelines from Kashgar in Xinjiang province to the Pakistani port of Gwadar in the Persian Gulf—might
Reid Standish Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 20, 2021 The sudden takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country has left China facing a precarious mix of opportunity and risk as it prepares to deal with the new power brokers in Kabul. Only hours after the Taliban took control