BAZARAK, Afghanistan — Since seizing power in August 2021, Afghanistan’s Taliban government says it has signed deals with scores of investors to mine gemstones, gold, copper, iron and other valuable minerals, such as chromite. These buried treasures offer a potentially lucrative lifeline for a feeble economy.

China has led the way in Afghan investments through its Belt and Road Initiative, an aggressive effort to spread Chinese influence worldwide. Russian and Iranian investors have also signed mining licenses, filling the void left by the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The U.S. government estimates that at least $1 trillion in mineral deposits lie beneath Afghanistan’s rugged landscape. The country is rich in copper, gold, zinc, chromite, cobalt, lithium and industrial minerals, as well as in precious and semiprecious gemstones such as emeralds, rubies, sapphires, garnets and lapis lazuli.

Afghanistan also holds a trove of rare earth elements, according to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. agency that will close this year. Such elements are used in an array of modern technology, like mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles.

The Taliban are trying to do what the United States could not during its 20-year occupation. The U.S. government spent nearly $1 billion to develop mining projects in Afghanistan, but “tangible progress was negligible and not sustained,” the special inspector general concluded in a report published in January 2023.

Many of the hurdles from that time could still apply: a lack of security, poor infrastructure, corruption, inconsistent government policies and regulations, and frequent turnover of government officials.

The Taliban are nonetheless giving it a shot, desperate for revenue after Afghanistan’s precipitous loss of aid with the U.S. withdrawal.

During the war, the United States provided roughly $143 billion in development and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, propping up the U.S.-aligned government.

The Afghan economy has shrunk by 26% over the past two years, the World Bank reported in April. The sharp decline in international aid, the bank said, has left Afghanistan “without any internal engines of growth.”

On top of that, the Taliban’s ban on opium production has cost farmers $1.3 billion in income, or 8% of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, the World Bank said. The ban has cost 450,000 jobs and reduced land under poppy cultivation by 95%, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported.

Mining could help replace poppies as a steady revenue stream. Turkey and Qatar, along with China and Iran, have invested in iron, copper, gold and cement mines.

Under the previous government, the emerald trade was a corrupt free-for-all. Warlords and politically connected dealers dominated the trade, and tax collection was haphazard at best.

But as the Taliban government has instituted weekly emerald auctions in the emerald-rich Panjshir province, it has controlled and taxed all sales. Dealers who buy emeralds at the auctions do not receive the gems until they pay the 10% levy.

The Taliban are taxing other precious stones as well, including rubies and sapphires.