Badakhshan Gold Mines Expose Taliban Regime’s Mineral Control and Mafia Style Exclusion

The struggle over gold in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province is increasingly becoming a struggle over power itself. Recent protests by local mining workers in Arghanj Khwah, alongside earlier demonstrations over restrictions on local mining, highlight a growing dispute over who benefits from the province’s mineral wealth.

As mechanised companies expand their presence and traditional workers are pushed out, gold is emerging not only as an economic resource but as a source of political influence, social resentment and conflict.

Badakhshan is among Afghanistan’s most mineral-rich provinces, and gold mining provides livelihoods for large numbers of people. In February 2026, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum claimed that more than 100,000 people were directly and indirectly employed through gold-mining activities in the province.

 It also highlighted infrastructure projects financed through mining companies as evidence of the sector’s economic contribution. Yet these claims of economic progress contrast sharply with the grievances emerging from mining communities.

 For workers whose livelihoods depend on small-scale extraction, the expansion of commercial operations can mean losing access to the very resources that sustain them.

This tension has become increasingly visible throughout 2026. In June, hundreds of residents in Nusay protested restrictions on local gold-washing workshops, saying they were being denied licences and the right to work in nearby mines.

 In July, mine workers and workshop owners again protested outside the Taliban’s Mines Department in Badakhshan, alleging that mining closures had left hundreds of families without income.

Some protesters further alleged that better-connected workshops continued operating after obtaining permission through bribery. The Taliban had not publicly responded to those allegations.

The latest protests therefore point to a broader problem than an isolated dispute between workers and mining companies. When advanced machinery and commercially organised extraction replace traditional miners, the distribution of mineral wealth becomes a political question.

Communities may reasonably ask why resources located in their own districts generate opportunities for outside companies while local workers lose their means of livelihood.

If access to mining increasingly depends on political connections, financial capacity or proximity to powerful actors, Afghanistan’s mineral sector risks becoming another mechanism for concentrating wealth rather than distributing it.

Concerns over opaque control are reinforced by reports of internal Taliban competition over Badakhshan’s goldfields. In May, local reports described growing tensions among Taliban factions over control of gold mines in Shakï, Nusay and Shughnan, while a special Taliban military unit was reportedly deployed to contain the situation.

Other reports have linked disputes over mining to the Taliban’s broader internal divisions in the province. More recently, fighting between Taliban forces and fighters loyal to dissident commander Juma Khan Fateh has further demonstrated how mineral resources can intersect with factional power struggles.

This creates the risk of a mafia-style resource economy in which formal institutions exist but actual access to valuable resources is determined by networks of influence. Such a system can encourage corruption, deepen local inequalities and turn mining sites into centres of confrontation.

 It can also weaken the credibility of the Taliban’s claim that its control has brought order and economic development.

For Badakhshan, the stakes are particularly high. The province has already experienced armed resistance, internal Taliban tensions and repeated public protests. Disputes over gold add an economic dimension to these security challenges. The issue is no longer simply who governs Badakhshan, but who controls its wealth and who is allowed to benefit from it.

Unless mining governance becomes more transparent, locally inclusive and accountable, Afghanistan’s mineral wealth may deepen rather than reduce instability.