The Taliban have announced that since the beginning of the current year, 19,846 carats of emeralds have been extracted and sold from mines in Panjshir province.
Bakhtar News Agency, which is under Taliban control, reported on Monday, 8 June, that this amount of emeralds was sold through an auction for a total value of $424,220.
According to the report, local Taliban officials in Panjshir said that the number of mining sites in the province has reached 600.
The Taliban also stated that 17 types of precious and semi-precious minerals, including emeralds, gold, and beryl, have so far been identified in Panjshir.
They further claimed that 10 percent of the revenue generated from the sale of extracted emeralds has been deposited into the Taliban treasury.
Panjshir is considered one of Afghanistan’s most important emerald-producing regions, and emeralds from the province are highly valued in both domestic and international markets.
This comes as unregulated mining activities have increased significantly since the Taliban’s return to power, and clashes have repeatedly occurred over mining sites between Taliban fighters and, in some cases, between the Taliban and local residents.
