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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:44 am
Time: 11:44 am
Results for precious minerals
2 results foundAuthor: Global Witness Title: War in the Treasury of the People: Afghanistan, Lapis Lazuli and the battle for mineral wealth Summary: new investigation today reveals how Afghanistan's 6,500 year old lapis mines are driving corruption, conflict and extremism in the country. Global Witness has found that the Taliban and other armed groups are earning up to 20 million dollars per year from Afghanistan's lapis mines, the world's main source of the brilliant blue lapis lazuli stone, which is used in jewellery around the world. As a result, the Afghan lapis lazuli stone should now be classified as a conflict mineral. The lapis mines are in the Badakhshan region, once one of the more stable areas in Afghanistan, even at the height of Taliban control. However, violent competition for control of the lucrative mines and their revenue, between local strong men, local MPs and the Taliban has deeply destabilised the province and made it one of the hotbeds of the insurgency. With the Taliban on the outskirts of the mines themselves, as well as controlling key roads into the mining areas, there is now a real risk that the mines could fall into their hands. Global Witness' investigation also includes evidence that the Badakhshan mines are a strategic priority for the so-called Islamic State. Unless the Afghan government acts rapidly to regain control, the battle for the lapis mines is set to intensify and further destabilise the country, as well as fund extremism. The lapis mines in Afghanistan's Badakhshan region are a microcosm of a problem that is replicated across the country, where mining is the Taliban's second biggest source of income. Money from Afghanistan's mines should be an important source of wealth to fund essential services, including security, health and education. Afghanistan sits on over a trillion dollars' worth of mineral, oil and gas deposits, which could provide the government with over $2 billion in revenue a year, if developed properly. But rampant corruption and a failure to secure mining sites means that mines have been targeted by insurgent groups and are now a major contributor to conflict and extremism. The new Afghan mining law, which is currently being amended by the government, fails to include the actions needed to counter this threat, the report warns. Details: London: Global Witness, 2016. 100p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 10, 2016 at: https://www.globalwitness.org/en-gb/campaigns/afghanistan/war-treasury-people-afghanistan-lapis-lazuli-and-battle-mineral-wealth/ Year: 2016 Country: Afghanistan URL: https://www.globalwitness.org/en-gb/campaigns/afghanistan/war-treasury-people-afghanistan-lapis-lazuli-and-battle-mineral-wealth/ Shelf Number: 139368 Keywords: Conflict MineralsPolitical CorruptionPrecious MineralsTalibanTerrorist Financing |
Author: Partnership Africa Canada Title: Triple Jeopardy: Triplicate Forms and Triple Borders: Controlling Diamond Exports from Guyana Summary: South America's second oldest diamond producer, Guyana has year after year been quietly producing tens and often hundreds of thousands of small, clear, high-quality diamonds for most of the 20th century. Guyana signed on to the Kimberley Process on December 13, 2002, putting in place a system designed to ensure that the diamonds exported from Guyana are all legally produced and declared in Guyana. The country has a number of natural advantages that have helped this effort. Guyana is relatively small by South American standards, with transportation routes and administrative capacity all centred on the capital, Georgetown. Mining has historically been, and remains one of the country's key industries, with the result that the Guyana government takes mining regulation seriously. The government agency in charge of mining, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) is an autonomous public corporation, able to raise its own funds, hire its own staff and design and implement its own regulatory regimes. An institutional descendent of the old Geological Survey of British Guiana, the GGMC has inherited and preserved many of the better aspects of the British civil service tradition. The current GGMC Commissioner, Brindley H. Robeson Benn, appears to be an able and effective administrator, determined to bring Guyana's diamond fields under his control. In this effort he has the backing of Guyana's Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds. Details: Ottawa: Partnership Africa Canada, 2006. Source: Internet Resource: Occasional paper (Diamonds and Human Security Project), no. 14., 2006: Accessed August 7, 2017 at: http://dspace.africaportal.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/26088/1/Triple%20Jeopardy%20-%20Triplicate%20Forms%20and%20Triple%20Borders%20-%20Controlling%20Diamond%20Exports%20from%20Guyana.pdf?1 Year: 2006 Country: Guyana URL: http://dspace.africaportal.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/26088/1/Triple%20Jeopardy%20-%20Triplicate%20Forms%20and%20Triple%20Borders%20-%20Controlling%20Diamond%20Exports%20from%20Guyana.pdf?1 Shelf Number: 146750 Keywords: Blood DiamondsDiamond MiningDiamond SmugglingDiamondsPrecious Minerals |