The Taliban have announced that precious and semi-precious stones extracted from mines in Nuristan province have been sold through an auction for 28.681 million Afghanis.
Bakhtar News Agency under the Taliban control, reported on Sunday, October 25, that the stones included tourmaline and kunzite and were extracted from mines in the Wama and Waygal districts of Nuristan.
According to the report, 2.868 million Afghanis from the sale will be deposited into the Taliban’s treasury.
Since the Taliban returned to power, unregulated mining in Afghanistan has increased, raising concerns about extraction practices, transparency in sales, and the management of revenue from the country’s natural resources.
Nasir Ahmad Faiq, Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires to the United Nations, has said the country’s natural resources and mining revenues should serve the Afghan people and be managed transparently, with accountability and in the national interest.
