Afghanistan Mineral Reserves A Study of Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

Afghanistan's geopolitical location and now its mineral wealth have put Afghanistan in an untenable position, strengthening both the domestic insurgency and renewing the “Great Game” competition between major powers in the world. Recent geological exploration has brought global attention to the mineral resource of the country, in particular the occurrences of rare earth minerals, which have significant applications in today’s emerging technologies such as clean energy technologies and defence systems. In addition, the commodity price boom in recent years, particularly for the staple materials for infrastructure building, created a global rush for these resources. It is incontrovertible that global greed for minerals turned out to be fierce competition in most of the resource-rich developing countries, and Afghanistan is not an exceptional case, and in addition to offering geostrategic leverage, Afghanistan’s lucrative mineral resources could serve as a potential threat to its stability. Thus, the main goal of the present study on “Afghanistan mineral reserves: A study of prospects and challenges” is not only to investigate resource curse aspects such as weak resource governance and institutions, corruption, conflicts, and social and environmental grievances and its potential flops in Afghanistan’s situation but also studied the correlation between resource curse and geopolitical location of Afghanistan, which led to an explicit answer. The present study was qualitative in nature and used an exploratory approach; the inductive approach was chosen to formulate a theoretical framework based on our primary and secondary data, which were collected through In-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations (participant and non-participant), and document reviews were used as data collection tools, by this means to answer the research question and to achieve research objectives. The proposed study was conducted in Afghanistan; however, the sample area was only Badakhshan and Panjshir provinces, where many illegal mining operations, in particular, lapis lazuli and emerald mining, are taking place. The purpose of the study, “Afghanistan Mineral Reserves: A Study of Prospects and Challenges,” aimed to answer the research question “Why Afghanistan’s geopolitical location is considered a hurdle to benefit its trillionth mineral trove” and to gain a better understanding of the correlation between resource curse and geopolitical location of Afghanistan. The geopolitical location of Afghanistan was the main reason that the natural resources of the country remained untapped or squandered throughout different periods. The findings further support the idea that the geopolitical location of Afghanistan was the context of endless warfare for centuries, and now we can next consider the rich natural resources and geo-economic location of the country. To conclude, the geopolitical location of Afghanistan was the main reason that the natural resources of the country remained untapped throughout different periods. The findings indicate that the geopolitical location of Afghanistan was the context of endless warfare for centuries, and now we can next consider the rich natural resources of the country. However, Afghanistan still has the same importance as in the ancient great game due to its geopolitical location, but this time not only as a crossroad but as a corridor connecting the region and natural resource exporting and energy transit country to rapidly developing economies such as India, China, etc. In addition, the findings of the present study can be used in establishing and developing policies and strategies in the extractive sector in Afghanistan. It helps us to understand that not only the common resource curses aspects such as weak resource governance and institutions, corruption, conflicts, and social and environmental grievances should be considered obstacles towards developing extractive sector policies and strategies but also the geopolitical location of Afghanistan which is a real hurdle in not benefiting its natural riches. Afghanistan is strategically located in a dangerous neighbourhood, and this fact cannot be ignored in establishing any developing policies or strategies for its mining sector.