Afghan exports of precious and semi-precious stones exceeded $2.2 million last year.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the main importers of gems from Afghanistan are Germany, Kazakhstan, India, Iran, China, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Switzerland.
Due to the underdevelopment of the processing industry in the war-torn country, the state sells only rough stones abroad. More than 100 types of precious and semi-precious stones are mined in the country. Along with this, Afghanistan imports some types of stones from Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen.
According to geological exploration data, the country has vast nonfuel mineral resources that exceed $1 trillion in estimated value. There are sizeable reserves of iron, copper, chromite, gold, gemstones, lithium, rare earth elements, cobalt, bauxite, mercury, uranium and chromium. The country may also be holding the world’s largest lithium reserves. However, the mining industry remains underdeveloped due to decades of conflict and long-term political and economic instability, and mine development carries high financial, political and technological risks. All this makes Afghanistan one of the world’s most resource-rich countries but only on paper.
Last year, the Taliban government signed seven contracts worth $6.5 billion to develop fields in four provinces - Herat, Ghor, Logar and Takhar. Mining will be carried out by local companies, including those with foreign capital (Iran, China, Turkey).
In April, a semi-precious stones trading house was inaugurated in the eastern province of Nangarhar (the administrative center of Jalalabad), which became one of the few official jewelry trading centers in the country. One of the goals of this newly-established trading house is to curtail the trade of precious stones on the black market and put it under the transparent state control.
Hélène Tarin for Rough&Polished
