RASC News Agency: Four years after the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan’s mining sector promoted by the group as a cornerstone of “economic recovery” has entered a deeply contentious phase. What is presented as development is increasingly marked by the absence of transparent oversight, the expanding influence of foreign actors particularly China and a surge in local resentment and violence.
According to a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a deadly confrontation at a gold mine in Takhar province in northern Afghanistan has once again drawn attention to the Taliban’s opaque and coercive management of the country’s mineral wealth. The Taliban-controlled Ministry of Interior confirmed that four people were killed and five others injured during clashes between representatives of a gold-mining company and residents of Chah Ab District.
Taliban Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani stated that three of the victims were local residents, while one was an employee of the mining company. However, Taliban authorities have withheld the company’s name, contract details, and the identities of those killed a recurring pattern that underscores the structural lack of transparency in Taliban governance.
Local residents told Radio Free Europe that tensions erupted after the Taliban-contracted company began mining operations on agricultural land and near residential areas. What began as public protest quickly escalated into violence, exposing the widening gap between the Taliban’s economic rhetoric and realities on the ground.
The mine is located in a region widely associated with Chinese or joint Afghanistan-Chinese mining projects, many of which operate without meaningful consultation with local communities or credible environmental impact assessments.
Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s gold sector in particular has seen a rapid influx of foreign especially Chinese companies. In November 2025, five Chinese nationals were killed in two separate attacks near the Tajikistan border. While responsibility for the attacks remains unclear, analysts link them to mounting tensions between local populations and mining operations imposed under Taliban protection.
Abdul Qader Motafi, a veteran Afghanistani mining expert, told Radio Free Europe:
“There is no real oversight in Afghanistan. Mining is conducted primarily in the easiest and most profitable locations, while independent and public supervision has been effectively eliminated.”
In Badakhshan and Takhar provinces, gold extraction under the control of Taliban-aligned local commanders has expanded sharply. Residents report that their land has been confiscated, while profits flow to Taliban power networks, foreign companies, and a narrow circle of local investors.
In Shahr-e Bozorg District of Badakhshan, heavy machinery has replaced traditional mining tools, and vast areas have been sealed off by armed Taliban guards. One local miner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:
“Ordinary people are not even allowed to come within a kilometer of the mine.”
The destruction of pistachio groves, grazing lands, and alterations to the course of the Amu River an ecological lifeline for the region and neighboring countries are cited as direct consequences of unregulated extraction.
Despite growing local protests, the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has failed to publish contracts, disclose revenue figures, or release environmental assessments. At the national level, the Taliban portray mining as Afghanistan’s economic salvation, yet experts warn that this approach will leave the country with depleted resources, entrenched poverty, and deepening inequality.
Azarakhsh Hafezi, former head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, emphasized:
“Exporting raw mineral resources without processing creates no sustainable economic value. The mines will be exhausted, but poverty will remain.”
What emerges from the Radio Free Europe report is the portrait of a governing system that manages national wealth without transparency, public participation, or accountability. By accelerating extraction and relying on foreign partners most notably China the Taliban appear focused on securing short-term revenue streams. The cost, however, is borne by local communities, the environment, and Afghanistan’s long-term economic future.
Ultimately, gold mining in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is not a symbol of development, but rather an emblem of latent instability, structural violence, and the systematic plunder of national resourcesa model whose consequences are likely to reverberate far beyond Afghanistan’s borders.
