Recent reports indicate that floodwaters have inundated a gold mine in the Awiz area of Shahr-e Bozorg district in Badakhshan province. While the exact extent of the damage to the mine remains unclear, some local sources claim that the flood was deliberately redirected toward the mine following a dispute between the Taliban and Chinese contracting companies.
Local sources from Shahr-e Bozorg district say that nearly a thousand drilling companies had been operating in the mine under contracts with the Taliban, extracting gold. However, in recent days, the Taliban reportedly ordered these companies to vacate the site. According to these sources, after receiving the order from the Taliban, the Chinese companies deliberately diverted the floodwaters toward the mine so that residents would be unable to access it after their departure.
Bisharat (pseudonym), one of the local sources, said: “Nearly a thousand Chinese companies, perhaps even more, were engaged in mining here, but it is said that the Taliban recently ordered these companies to leave the site. For this reason, the Chinese tried to destroy the mine upon their departure and deliberately directed the floodwaters into the area.”
However, it remains unclear what dispute prompted the Taliban to order the Chinese companies to leave. The Hasht-e Subh Daily was also unable to independently verify the cause of the disagreement between the Taliban and the Chinese companies.
Another local source from Shahr-e Bozorg said, “The Chinese were very greedy. When they could no longer align with the Taliban, they did not want the people to benefit from this mine. They destroyed it by diverting the floodwaters so that people could not access the gold.”
Local sources also emphasize that mining operations at the site intensified following the Taliban’s takeover. One source said: “Over these years, the Chinese extensively exploited the mine, extracting up to 30 kilograms of gold per day for their own use, and in the end, they did not want the people to benefit from it either.”
After seizing control of Afghanistan and accelerating the extraction of mineral resources, the Taliban awarded contracts for the large gold mines of Badakhshan and Takhar to Chinese companies. Concerns had previously been raised that the Taliban were looting the country’s natural wealth.
This comes against a backdrop of more than four years during which there has been no transparency regarding revenues derived from Afghanistan’s natural resources or how those revenues have been spent. The Taliban have yet to publish precise details of how these proceeds are generated and used, and have not even officially announced their own regime’s annual budget.
Alongside this, concerns have recently been raised that, amid rising tensions with Pakistan, the Taliban are looting the mines of certain regions of Afghanistan while attempting to manage public opinion.
Meanwhile, the Embassy of Afghanistan in Switzerland, at the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, declared that Afghanistan’s natural heritage and cultural diversity cannot be preserved through the elimination of protected areas. According to the embassy, the Taliban’s control over land and resources, illegal mining, and the exclusion of women, minorities, and indigenous communities are undermining both environmental protection and cultural rights.
You can read the Persian version of this report here:
تغییر مسیر سیلاب و غارت معادن؛ معدنکاران شهر بزرگ چه میگویند؟
