Panjshir emeralds attract overseas buyers as miners struggle with basic tools

Panjshir’s emerald trade is attracting buyers from Kabul and overseas while miners continue to work with basic equipment, according to Al Jazeera reporting published on October 9 from northeastern Afghanistan. An auction at the provincial government offices sold nearly 3,000 carats, highlighting demand for stones extracted by workers who describe difficult conditions underground.

Al Jazeera identified the auction as the 23rd such sale this year, without specifying when it took place. Its report puts the estimated value of emeralds sold in Afghanistan to date at nearly 400 million Afghanis ($6.12 million), describing a steep rise from the previous year.

That estimate measures reported sales value. The report provides neither a comparable previous-year total nor enough detail about its accounting period and methodology to calculate a growth rate. It also does not establish how much of the money reaches miners.

Panjshir emerald buyers inspect stones before bidding

In Rob McBride’s Al Jazeera field report, buyers crowded a hall at the provincial government offices and examined small piles of roughly cut green stones. They shone phone flashlights through the stones to assess quality before bidding, with competition particularly brisk for the best examples.

In an account published in April 2014, GIA field gemologist Andy Lucas described Afghan emeralds as capable of excellent colour, including in small crystals. Their shape can also allow relatively good retention of material during cutting. Those observations explain qualities sought by buyers, without establishing a current international price comparison.

Mining jobs come with difficult working conditions

Muhammad Aman Rezaii, a mining official overseeing small artisanal operations, told Al Jazeera that more than 15,000 people were employed in Panjshir’s mining sector. The figure is his estimate for the provincial sector as a whole; the report does not provide a separately verified emerald-only workforce count.

“There are hardly any companies or manufacturing factories here. The main source of employment is the mining sector,” Rezaii said. Small mines dot the valley’s steep hillsides, where Al Jazeera described workers spending hours underground to earn a living.

At one mine, a worker identified as Mahdi used a crowbar in near-total darkness while a colleague struck the surface with a hammer. “There are many challenges because we don’t have advanced equipment,” he told Al Jazeera, listing shovels, pickaxes and drills among the tools available.

Rezaii said better equipment was needed to make extraction easier, safer and more professional. He identified landslides, avalanches, flooding and falling rocks as hazards. The report gives no injury or fatality rate with which to measure the current scale of those risks.

Earlier GIA fieldwork documents access and extraction challenges

The difficulties of reaching and working the deposits were documented well before the latest auction report. GIA’s April 2014 account described Lucas travelling with emerald dealer Arthur Groom and hiking uphill for four hours from Pawat to reach the mining area.

Lucas observed diesel-powered drilling and explosives used to remove rock while preserving emeralds. Workers then searched the loosened material, broke promising pieces with hand tools and washed them using screens. These are historical observations of the operations he visited, with no basis for extending them to every mine today.

That account also described businesspeople financing food and equipment, with profits divided between owners and miners. Some owners had previously worked as miners themselves. GIA gave no numerical profit shares, and its historical description does not establish current earnings or how proceeds from this year’s sales are distributed.

Processing proposals have no confirmed delivery timetable

Panjshir Governor Hafiz Muhammad Agha Hakim told Al Jazeera there had been proposals for an international market for Afghanistan’s precious minerals, particularly in Kabul. He said machinery could allow minerals to be processed and standardised domestically before export.

“At the moment, there is no standardised centre or proper processing facility,” Hakim said. The report identifies no committed financing, construction schedule or opening date for the proposed facilities.

Rezaii also said officials had identified more than 2,000 additional mining sites that could be developed. Their identification does not establish operating mines, proven economic reserves or funded projects. Whether stronger sales will translate into new equipment, safer workplaces or higher miner earnings remains unestablished by the reporting.