In a cold hall in Afghanistan, piles of freshly mined green emeralds glow under bright table lamps as bearded jewelers check for purity and quality.
The auctioneer asked for bids on the first lot, which weighed 256 carats. With that, the Taliban’s weekly gem auction was underway.
The sale, in the emerald-rich Panjshir Province in eastern Afghanistan, is part of an effort by the Taliban government to cash in on the country’s vast mineral and gemstone reserves.
Since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban say they have signed deals with many investors to mine precious stones, gold, copper, iron and other valuable minerals, such as chromite. These buried treasures offer a potentially lucrative way of life in a weak economy.
China is leading the way in investment under the Belt and Road Initiative, a powerful effort to spread Chinese influence around the world. Russian and Iranian investors have also signed mining licenses, filling the void left by the tumultuous US withdrawal in 2021.
The US government estimates that at least $1 trillion in mineral deposits lie beneath the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. The country is rich in copper, gold, zinc, chromite, cobalt, lithium and industrial minerals, as well as precious and semiprecious gems such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires, garnets and lapis lazuli.
Afghanistan is also home to a number of rare world artifacts, according to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a US agency that will close this year. Such elements are used in a range of modern technologies, such as mobile phones, laptops and electric cars.
The Taliban are trying to do what the United States was unable to do during its 20-year rule. The US government has spent nearly one billion dollars to develop mining projects in Afghanistan, but “apparent progress has been neglected and has not continued,” the special inspector concluded in a report published in January 2023.
Many of the barriers of that time still apply: lack of security, poor infrastructure, corruption, inconsistent government policies and laws, and frequent changes in government officials.
The Taliban, however, are opening up an opportunity, desperate to get money after Afghanistan’s loss of aid due to the US withdrawal.
During the war, the United States provided approximately $143 billion in development and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, supporting the US-backed government. As of 2021, the United States has provided $2.6 billion in such aid, delivered by a private contractor in bundles of money wrapped on airplanes to Kabul, according to the special inspector general.
The Afghan economy has shrunk by 26 percent over the past two years, the World Bank reported in April. A sharp decline in international aid, the bank said, has left Afghanistan “without internal engines of growth.”
In addition, the Taliban’s ban on opium production has cost farmers $1.3 billion, or 8 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, the World Bank said. The ban has led to the loss of 450,000 jobs and reduced poppy cultivation by 95 percent, reports the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Mining can help replace poppies as a way to earn steady income. Turkey and Qatar, as well as China and Iran, have invested in iron, copper, gold and cement mines. Uzbek companies have signed agreements to extract oil in northern Afghanistan, according to the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.
The Taliban already collects a tax on the sale of emeralds.
Under the previous government, the emerald trade was a corrupt free-for-all. Warlords and political merchants dominated the industry, and tax collection was highly disorganized.
But since the Taliban government has established weekly emerald auctions, it has controlled and taxed all sales. Sellers who buy emeralds at auctions do not receive the gems until they pay the 10% tax.
The Taliban taxed other precious stones, including rubies and sapphires.
Rahmatullah Sharifi, a jeweler who bought two sets of emeralds at the auction, said he had no problem paying the tax.
“The government needs money to develop the country,” he said. “The question is: Will they use it to help the Afghan people?”
In Panjshir Province, where most of Afghanistan’s emeralds are mined, the government has issued 560 emerald licenses to foreign and Afghan investors, said Hamayoon Afghan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.
The department has also granted licenses to mine rubies in Panjshir Province and Kabul, said Mr. Afghanistan, and plans are underway for emerald and gemstone licenses in three other provinces.
But most of the new licenses are for unopened mines. And many existing mines are plagued by poor infrastructure and a shortage of experienced engineers and technicians.
Mr. Afghan acknowledged that the country needs more engineers and technicians. Foreign investors bring in experienced professionals, he said, and are obligated under licenses to hire Afghans and teach them technical and engineering skills.
Most of the emeralds are bought at weekly auctions and resold to foreign buyers, dealers said. Among the merchants buying emeralds one day in November was Haji Ghazi, who sells precious stones in a small cell-like room inside the dark shops of downtown Kabul.
Two days after the auction, Mr. Ghazi bolted the door of his shop, closed the curtains and opened the ancient safe. He took out stones like emeralds and rubies, each one wrapped in pure white paper.
A large set of emeralds by Mr. The blood was worth about $250,000, he said. He estimated that the smallest cache of bright rubies was worth $20,000.
In the corner, Mr. Ghazi had piled heavy pieces of stone with blue veins of lapis lazuli, a precious stone. Most of the world’s lapis is mined in northern Afghanistan.
Mr. Ghazi sells most of his gems to buyers from the United Arab Emirates, India, Iran and Thailand. He said he missed the days, before the Taliban took over, when the job brought willing buyers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Australia.
In a nearby shop, Azizullah Niyazi turned on a desk lamp to illuminate a collection of lapis lazuli, rubies, sapphires and emeralds placed on a small table. He was waiting for his first customer of the morning.
Mr. Niyazi said that sales have not been strong since for the past 13 years he has been allowed to sell precious stones one day a week in a small shop at the American military base. His profits soared as soldiers and civilian contractors lined up to buy gems every Friday — and rarely negotiated prices, unlike Afghan or Arab buyers, he said. He said he paid 7% tax on his profit.
These days, Mr. Niyazi has to travel to increase sales: He said he has opened a store in China, and visits regularly. In Kabul, he sells to buyers from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, as well as from Pakistan, Iran and a few other countries.
He has a few Afghan clients.
“Not many Afghans can afford to pay $1,000 or $2,000 to have a stone made into a ring,” he said with a shrug.
Safiullah PadshahYaqoob Akbary and Najim Rahim contributed reporting.
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