Afghanistan’s raw materials policy regarding rare earth elements after the Taliban victory
Afghanistan’s raw materials policy regarding rare earth elements after the Taliban victory

Summary/Abstract: The Taliban victory in Afghanistan in 2021 has not only raised geopolitical concerns buthas also sparked questions about the state’s policies and strategies concerning its rare earth elementsreserves. The main objective of the presented article is to indicate how the current political change inAfghanistan may affect the raw material policy regarding the extraction of rare earth elements, takinginto account geopolitical factors. Rare earth elements are a group of critical minerals that are of greatimportance to modern technologies, ranging from electronics and renewable energy to defence sys-tems. Afghanistan is known to possess significant deposits of these valuable resources, which havethe potential to play a crucial role in global supply chains, especially in the face of ongoing rivalrybetween the People’s Republic of China and the United States of America. The research problem of theconsiderations undertaken in this article is to assess the key challenges and opportunities in harnessingAfghanistan’s rare earth element resources after the Taliban’s return to power. The research conductedshows that despite having a significant amount of rare earth elements, Afghanistan lacks the infra-structure necessary to extract and process these valuable minerals. After the Taliban victory, the newlyestablished government sees the potential benefit in extracting rare earth elements and is willing to alignitself with China to exploit them.

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