Afghanistan possesses enormous and unspecified mineral riches: oil, iron, gold and precious gems, deposits of copper, lithium and rare earths. A countervalue, writes Il Sole24Ore, estimated by the Americans at three trillion dollars.
The withdrawal of the US from the country, followed by that of the allies of the coalition, is a great opportunity for those in that area with strategic interests and beyond. China e Russia they are already in the game, they are the only ones who have left the embassies open and operational with the approval of the new rulers, the Taliban. Afghanistan is part of the Chinese "Silk Road" but it is also an excellent opportunity for Russian interests in the field of hydrocarbons.
Then there is the question of the TAPI project. On 6 February, a few days before the historic signing of theDoha agreement between the Americans and the Taliban (February 29, 2021), the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, met with senior representatives of the Turkmen Foreign Ministry and a delegation from the political bureau of the Taliban movement led by the mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The reason for the meeting was the question of security in Afghanistan, resolved today with the takeover of the country by the Taliban. Turkmenistan is in fact intending to carry on the TAPI project, that is a gas pipeline that should cross Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, developed by Galkynysh - TAPI Pipeline Company Limited with the participation of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and with the support unconditional of Washington.
China is already ahead of all the others because it already holds important mining licenses. The most contested (for pollution due to alleged corruption) is the Mes Aynak, (translated: small source of copper) which will allow China for thirty years to be able to extract from the largest copper deposit in the world, estimated by the former Afghan government at 11,3 million tons of metal. The Chinese China Metallurgical Group (Mec) and Jiangxi Copper won the bid for three billion dollars in 2007.
The pharaonic Chinese project also includes a coal-fired power plant, a water network and a railway to Pakistan and Uzbekistan, in the area where there is an archaeological area home to ancient Buddhist monasteries. In those parts there is also an important mining site, the Hajigak, a deposit that contains about 2 million tons of iron, which extends for over 32 kilometers in the mountains. Then in that area there is also a deposit of niobium, a rare and precious metal used, writes the Sole24Ore, for applications in the defense sector.
China also holds the oil license assigned in 2011 for a duration of 23 years, to the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), relating to three fields along the Amu Darya River. There is no shortage of oil, in fact in the north of the country, 1,8 billion barrels of oil and gas have been discovered.
In all this commercial value, the NATO countries that have fought for twenty years, including Italy, are not received, despite having left over 3000 dead on the ground (Italy 53). Dealing with the Taliban today on new contracts seems really difficult, as they have wisely portrayed us as traitors to the Afghan people.