Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government is offering the US access to its mineral resources while seeking sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets, the Financial Times reports.
Five years after the Taliban’s return to power, Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi says the country welcomes US involvement in mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and trade. However, no official statement on any proposal has been made.
“Relations between Afghanistan and the United States should not be assessed through the lens of the past 20 years of war, but rather on the basis of future cooperation,” Muttaqi tells the FT.
“Our economic policy is open.”
US Government officials estimated in 2010 that Afghanistan held nearly US$1 trillion ($1.39 trillion) in untapped mineral deposits, including vast amounts of critical minerals.
An internal Pentagon memo cited by The New York Times that year suggested Afghanistan could become a key lithium producer, supplying a key material for batteries and other technologies.
At the time, General David Petraeus, then commander of the US Central Command, described the potential as “hugely significant”. Jalil Jumriany, an advisor to the minister of mines, told the newspaper: “This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy”.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed significant restrictions on women and girls, targeting minority groups, and curtailed civil liberties. These restrictions have reversed many of the social and economic reforms that had previously enabled international engagement as UN human rights experts warn that normalising relations without measurable improvements in human rights risks legitimising oppression.
That said, the Taliban announced seven mining contracts in mid-2023, with planned investment ranging from US$6.5 billion–7 billion. The agreements involved locally based companies, many with partners in countries including China, Iran, and Turkey.
In a statement dated 13 August 2026, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner reiterated their warning against normalising Taliban rule. They are calling for accountability and urged states to make engagement conditional. That extends to enforcing sanctions against senior Taliban officials and financial networks that sustain the regime, restricting international recognition.
With countries including China, India, Iran, Qatar, and others opening channels of communications, the Taliban is reportedly hoping greater engagement will translate into sanctions relief.
Writing for the Lowy Institute, analysts Javed Noorani and Lynne O’Donnell argued that Afghanistan was effectively “giving away” its mineral wealth through deals that export value at the point of extraction.
“Raw ore is being shipped out as Afghanistan signs away its most valuable assets on terms that lock in its own irrelevance,” they wrote.
“Afghanistan is exporting its resources at the lowest end of the chain, while others — above all China — capture the processing, pricing, and strategic leverage that follow.”
The authors argued that, under other circumstances, Afghanistan’s resources would place it at the centre of the 21st century resource economy. Instead, they said, the resources were being moved quickly and monetised cheaply.
“In the four-and-a half years since returning to power, the Taliban authorities have issued hundreds of mining contracts covering zinc, lead, copper, antimony, and more, with opaque terms, minimal scrutiny, and a focus on immediate returns,” the Lowy Institute’s report said.
“Foreign companies — mainly Chinese, but also from Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey — secure access, extract ore, and ship it out. Afghanistan is left with little more than environmental damage and marginal returns.”
Afghanistan’s trillion-dollar mineral wealth remains a paradox — a potential cornerstone of the global energy transition, yet one that Lowy’s authors pointed out was being surrendered under opaque contracts and restrictive governance.
As the Taliban seeks legitimacy through resource deals with China, Iran, and others, the UN human rights experts warn that normalisation risks entrenching rights abuses. Meanwhile, the Lowy analysis raised concerns that Afghanistan was exporting value at the lowest end of the chain.
For now, as the authors argued, Afghanistan’s minerals were fueling outside economies more than its own, leaving the country with the environmental damage, marginal returns, and a future still driven by politics and religion over shared prosperity.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images
