Photo: Collected

Afghanistan, Jan 6, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A clash over gold mining in northern 
Afghanistan has resulted in casualties, a Taliban official told AFP on 
Tuesday, after a resident said multiple people were killed in the violence.

"A clash between employees of a contracted company and local residents over 
the extraction of a gold mine in Chah Ab district of Takhar province has 
resulted in both human and financial losses," said Humayoun Afghan, the 
spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

"A delegation from the ministry has been sent to Takhar to investigate the 
incident," he told AFP.

The ministry official did not detail whether there had been fatalities in 
Chah Ab, a rural district bordering Tajikistan, nor when the violence 
erupted.

One resident told AFP of "harassment" by miners from other provinces, with 
violence breaking out in recent days after "the area that supplied the local 
people with drinking water was destroyed by the miners".

"The locals rebelled against them with stones and sticks," he said Monday, on 
the condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

The resident told AFP multiple people were killed and the miners had since 
fled the area.

Officials and medics in Takhar did not respond to requests by AFP to comment 
on the incident.

Along with gold, Afghanistan mines marble, minerals, gemstones and coal.

Resources, including copper and lithium, buried across Afghanistan's rocky 
landscape are estimated to be worth a trillion dollars, according to US and 
UN assessments from 2010 and 2013.

The Taliban government has vowed to restore security to the country and is 
courting Afghan and foreign investors to exploit its underground wealth and 
secure a crucial revenue stream as foreign aid funding dries up.