PESHAWAR:The Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has said China has shown interest in investing in Afghanistan’s mines and mineral sectors.
According to the Ministry of Mines, China is also interested in investing in lithium and uranium, but the Taliban are of the view that currently they pursuing strategy now is to protect the natural resources instead of extracting them.
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Mufti Ismatullah Burhan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines, told BBC that Chinese delegation will soon visit Kabul and would further discuss the matter with the Taliban government. Burhan said that some other Chinese companies were interested in extracting the lithium, uranium and diamond. He said that they have has informed Chinese that for now they can invest in other mines, because it is important for Afghanistan to properly conserve lithium mines.
The Chinese company had signed an agreement with the then Afghan government for mining at Aynak mine in 2006. It was planned that the company will build three more mines in the Aynak copper mine. Chinese have invested millions of dollars, but due to various problems, the project has been delayed for years.