MES AYNAK, Afghanistan—Following the
American exit from Afghanistan, China’s move to claim the country’s vast mineral wealth is centered on a mountain south of Kabul.
The mountain and the barren surrounding valley, in Logar province, a two-hour drive from the capital, contain one of the world’s biggest untapped reserves of copper.
China is negotiating with Taliban authorities to start mining at the site, called Mes Aynak, according to Chinese and Taliban officials. Beijing is also in talks to begin work on oil-and-gas reserves in the north of the country, Amu Darya. Both projects were on hold for years because of the war, which ended when the Taliban seized power in August.
Dozens of Chinese mining companies have descended on Kabul in recent weeks seeking contracts for other mines.
Taliban members during a tour through a tunnel in Mes Aynak, which is reputed to hold the highest-grade copper.
U.S. officials say they are concerned that China will fill the vacuum left by the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Beijing developed a relationship with the Taliban in recent years and kept its Kabul embassy functioning when Western missions fled the Taliban takeover.
Iran, another U.S. rival, is in talks to secure a huge iron ore deposit in the west of the country. Tehran, too, has fostered good ties with the Taliban.
Afghanistan is one of the world’s poorest countries, but its mountainous geology contains huge riches: gold, precious stones, coal, oil and gas, lithium, and rare-earth minerals. China already controls most of the world’s rare-earth minerals, which are used to manufacture a variety of technologies, including components in electric vehicles and smartphone touch screens.
American experts a decade ago estimated the value of
Afghanistan’s mineral resources at $1 trillion. While the U.S. deployed tens of thousands of troops there and spent hundreds of billions of dollars, it was never able to unlock this bounty.
“The rest of the world have extracted their mines and have used them for their countries’ development while we were engaged in war for 43 years and, hence, our resources have remained untouched,” said the Taliban’s minister for minerals and petroleum, Shahabuddin Dilawar.
