Geological surveys carried out by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s confirm the existence of huge reserves of copper (among the largest in Eurasia), iron, high-grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl, barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite , lithium, tantalum, emeralds, gold and silver. (Afghanistan, Annual Mining Review, June 1984
These studies suggest that the actual value of these reserves may indeed be substantially greater than the one trillion dollar “estimate” provided by the Pentagon, USCG and USAID study.
The Hindu Kush Mountains, which extend along with their foothills over a large area of Afghanistan, are home to mineral deposits. Over the past 40 years,
several dozen deposits have been discovered in Afghanistan, and most of these discoveries have been sensational. However, they were kept secret, but despite this, some facts have recently become known.
It turns out that Afghanistan has reserves of non-ferrous and ferrous metals and precious stones, and if used, they could even cover the proceeds from the drug industry. The Ainak copper deposit in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province is said to be the largest on the Eurasian continent, and its location (40 km from Kabul) makes development cheap. The Hajigak iron ore deposit in the central province of Bamiyan produces ore of unusually high quality, with reserves estimated at 500 million tons. A coal deposit was also discovered not far from there.
Afghanistan is spoken of as a transit country for oil and gas.
However, very few people know that Soviet specialists discovered huge gas reserves there in the 1960s and built the country's first gas pipeline to supply gas to Uzbekistan. At that time, the Soviet Union received 2.5 billion cubic meters of Afghan gas per year. During the same period, large deposits of gold, fluorite, barites and marble onyx with very rare patterns were discovered.
However, pegmatite deposits discovered east of Kabul became a real sensation. Rubies, beryllium, emeralds, kunzites and hiddenites that are found nowhere else - deposits of these precious stones stretch for hundreds of kilometers. Also of strategic importance are rocks containing rare metals
beryllium, thorium, lithium and tantalum (they are used in aircraft construction and the creation of spacecraft).
Soviet estimates in the 1970s put Afghanistan's “discovered” (proven plus probable) gas reserves at about 5 trillion cubic feet. The initial reserves of Khoja-Gugerdag were estimated at just over 2 trillion cubic meters.” (See “Soviet Union to Retain Influence in Afghanistan,” Oil and Gas Magazine, May 2, 1988).