[There is enormous untapped mineral wealth there.]
That’s what Afghans keep saying. The assayers are full of crap. They spend only enough time in-country to avoid getting zapped by the Taliban. If I had a penny for every mineral prospector who claimed to have found the mother lode but really hadn’t, I’d have a huge stack of pennies. The Chinese looked at it, and arranged to have the Taliban protect whatever investment they made. So far, they’ve invested nothing in Afghanistan apart from sending looky-loos.
Actually I read it in a USGS report. They had people in Afghanistan down range.
Of course they could be lying.