Report
Full report: War in the Treasury of the People: Afghanistan, lapis lazuli and the battle for mineral wealth
How the Taliban and other armed groups are earning up to 20 million dollars per year from Afghanistan’s lapis mines
The mines of the rugged northeastern province of Badakhshan are one of the richest assets of the Afghan people, an extraordinary national treasure that should be a powerful resource for development.
Instead, as a two-year investigation reveals, they are a major source of conflict and grievance, supply millions of dollars of funding to armed groups, insurgents, and strongmen, and provide a tiny fraction of the benefit they should to the Afghan people. Without a coherent response, these mines – and others like them across Afghanistan – represent not just a lost opportunity, but a threat to the whole country.