Afghanistan Peace CampaignFarhad Farhaad
Exclusive
The miners stress that relying on basic tools puts workers at greater risk and makes it harder to extract gold of standard quality. Speaking to the Hasht-e Subh Daily, they say that before the suspension, they had borrowed money or brought in equipment owners as partners to cover the cost of machinery. The six-month halt has since left their operations saddled with debt and financial losses. They say it has also cut off income for dozens of workers and their families, deepening their economic hardship.
The miners are calling for a clearer licensing process and for mining to resume so they can keep extracting gold with proper equipment and within the law.
Adel (pseudonym) is one of the gold miners in Panjshir. He says the high cost of licenses and restrictions on machinery use have created serious problems for miners. Several residents, he adds, had given up farming and other work to pursue gold mining as a source of income. Now they can neither extract gold properly nor fall back on the farming they left behind. He says the confiscation of equipment by Taliban forces, combined with the lack of a clear response to miners’ appeals, has made their situation even harder.
“This isn’t just about the high cost of the license,” Adel says. “It has become an ordeal for the people of Panjshir. People want to earn a living through mining, but no matter how hard they try to sort out their problems, they get no clear answers. On one hand, the license comes at a high price. On the other, they won’t issue it, and they won’t let us use machinery either; they tell us to use shovels and pickaxes instead, even though gold is extremely difficult to extract that way and yields very little.”
He adds: “Many people gave up farming to make a living from gold mining. Now they have nothing from farming and no income from mining either. Some borrowed money to buy or rent equipment, but Taliban forces sometimes confiscate it without any clear reason. People are struggling, and they want officials to allow legal work, issue licenses, and let them use the equipment they need.”
Shakib (pseudonym) is another gold miner in Paryan district. He says the Taliban have left miners in limbo by setting high license fees while withholding the licenses themselves. He has gone repeatedly to the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) to request a license, he says, but has yet to receive a clear answer. According to Shakib, most miners borrowed money to get started in the sector, and now, with work halted and no licenses issued, they are without income and facing debt.
“For six months, I’ve gone to the Ministry of Mines in Kabul twice a week to try to get a license,” Shakib says. “But I get no real answer, and no one pays attention to our request. Gold mining had given people in Paryan hope of finding work and improving their situation, but the suspension has crushed that hope. Right now, we don’t know when we’ll be allowed to start working again and get a legal license.”
He is calling on the Taliban’s MoMP to lower license fees and streamline the approval process, arguing that doing so would let miners resume operations and bring dozens of workers back to work.
“Many of us who started this work didn’t have the money for equipment, so we had to borrow or bring in equipment owners as partners,” Shakib says. “Now, six months on, we have no extraction and no income from gold sales. When the work first began, it created jobs and income for dozens of people, and we hoped it would improve things economically. Now everyone is out of work and struggling with poverty. People have lost hope that the government will listen, and all we want is for the licenses to be issued so we can legally start working again.”
The complaints from Panjshir’s gold miners come even though the Taliban’s provincial Directorate of Mines and Petroleum has previously said it has issued licenses for the extraction of 66 types of minerals. According to Taliban figures, about 15,000 people, most of them young men, work in the province’s mining sector, and roughly 40 percent of them earn between 6,000 and 10,000 Afghanis a month.
At the same time, the Taliban have said they are seeking to attract foreign investment in Afghanistan’s mining sector. The Financial Times reported that the group has offered the United States investment opportunities and access to the country’s mineral resources. Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told the outlet that the group welcomes American investment in mining, infrastructure, agriculture, and trade.
Miners in Panjshir, however, say they still face high license fees, a halt in extraction, and an unclear approval process as they try to keep working.