The U.S. State Department has rejected a Taliban proposal for American investment in the development of Afghanistan's mineral resources, saying it has no intention of dealing with a movement officially designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott made the statement, as reported by the regional service of Voice of America and picked up by other outlets in the region.
«The State Department has no plans to engage with the Taliban — a specially designated global terrorist group — on developing Afghanistan's critical mineral resources,» Pigott said. Responding to a direct question about possible U.S. investment in mining under Taliban control, he added that such a step «would only give money to the Taliban and create conditions for their horrific treatment of the Afghan people."
The statement came in response to a proposal from Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who in an interview with the Financial Times published on August 31 called on Washington to invest in Afghanistan's mining industry, infrastructure, agriculture, and trade. According to Muttaqi, Afghanistan would «definitely» welcome American investment, and relations between the two countries should not be viewed «through the lens of two decades of war» — instead, both sides should focus on future cooperation. At stake is potential access to deposits the U.S. Geological Survey values at nearly a trillion dollars — Afghanistan holds large reserves of copper, lithium, rare-earth metals, cobalt, and iron ore.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have signed mining contracts worth more than $7 billion, but their main partners have been companies from China, Iran, Qatar, and Turkey — no major Western investors have been among them.
