Taliban offers US access to Afghanistan’s mineral wealth

Afghanistan's Taliban government is offering American companies access to the country's mineral resources in a bid to draw the Trump administration into economic engagement, seeking sanctions relief and the release of billions of dollars in frozen central-bank assets.

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told the Financial Times News Corp ↘ 2.36% in an interview published Monday that Kabul would "fully welcome U.S. investment in mining, infrastructure, agriculture and trade."ft+1

"Relations between Afghanistan and the United States should not be assessed through the lens of the past 20 years of war, but rather on the basis of future co-operation," Muttaqi said. "Our economic policy is open."ft

A Trillion Dollars Underground

Geological assessments conducted by the United States and the former Afghan government estimate that Afghanistan holds untapped mineral reserves worth at least $1 trillion, including copper, iron ore, lithium, cobalt, gold and niobium. Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban has signed mining contracts worth more than $7 billion with countries including China and Iran, covering gold, gemstones and chromite.kurdistan24+2

The pitch comes as the United States and China are locked in an intensifying contest over critical-mineral supply chains. China dominates not just mining of key minerals but roughly 91 percent of rare earth refining and 94 percent of sintered rare-earth magnet production, according to International Energy Agency figures cited by Kurdistan24. Afghanistan's resources could theoretically offer Washington another source of supply, though extracting them at scale would require infrastructure, financing and processing capacity that remains heavily concentrated in China.kurdistan24

Frozen Assets and Political Barriers

Muttaqi did not say whether the proposal had been presented directly to the White House. But the overture is tied to the Taliban's broader demand for access to an estimated $9.5 billion in Afghan central-bank reserves held abroad, including roughly $7 billion frozen in the United States. In 2022, Washington transferred $3.5 billion of those assets into the Switzerland-based Afghan Fund, which has since grown to more than $4 billion.biz.chosun+2

"No individual, government or institution should use the assets of the Afghan people as a tool of political pressure," Muttaqi said.afintl

Obstacles Remain

Any deal would face formidable barriers. The Taliban government lacks broad international recognition and continues to restrict women's access to education and employment, conditions Western governments have called major obstacles to normalization. Senior Taliban officials remain subject to international sanctions, and foreign diplomats have warned that investors would have to navigate those restrictions.kurdistan24+1

President Trump has so far shown little willingness to establish relations with the Taliban and has called for the return of Bagram Air Base, a demand Muttaqi rejected, calling all military and civilian facilities "national assets of Afghanistan."afintl