Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Claims that Afghanistan is sitting on $1trillion of mineral wealth
made headlines last year.
But the real story is the daily grind of impoverished miners taking
huge risks to dig out precious stones that are then sold on the black
market.
Afghan officials fear the proceeds are being used to fund the insurgency.
The World Bank is working with the government to legitimise the trade,
but faces huge challenges at a time when the Taliban looks stronger
that at any time since 2001.
The story of the emerald miners in the Panshir Valley outside Kabul is both a
tale of man's struggle against the mountain, and the human face of a
geo-political business story that could influence the balance of power
in South Asia for decades to come.
Azrat Mohammed looks passed a colleague while in a tunnel in which they mine emeralds in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
An elderly man who lost his leg in a landmine incident sits next to his shoe cleaning stall with his grandson and his prosthetic leg nearby in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Azrat Mohammed looks passed a colleague while in a tunnel in which they mine emeralds in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Azrat Mohammed holds out some findings of a recent excavation in his hand while a colleague holds a torch and they search for signs of emeralds in a tunnel of an emerald mine in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Miners walk along a damp tunnel with a kerosene lamp in an Emerald mine in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
An Emerald dealer, who buys his stones directly from the miners, examines stones he has just bought in his office in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
A blacksmitth uses an old bicycle to power his anvil to make a tool that is used by miners looking for emeralds in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
A rusting Russian tank sits ominously under a cloudy sky along the road up the Panjshir Valley, in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010. The Russians attempted to unsuccessfully conquer the Panjshir Valley in order to benefit from it's large amounts of mineral deposits, including emeralds and iron, but were beaten back by the fierce fighters loyal to Massoud and the Northern Alliance.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Rough shelters made of local stone perch high up on the side of a mountain in which a small army of miners live during the week, as they dig ever deeper into the side of the Panjshiri mountains in search of emeralds, near Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
A group of miners enjoy a meal of beans and bread after hours spent deep inside the tunnels of the emerald mines that litter the Panjshiri mountains in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Detail of a bowl of food as a group of miners enjoy a meal of beans and bread after hours spent deep inside the tunnels of the emerald mines that litter the Panjshiri mountains in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
An emerald miner searches for surface emeralds outside of a tunnel that he has been working in with the houses in which his community of miners lives in behind on a mountain in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Two emerald miners sit in the entrance to a mining tunnel, packing in a mixture of ammonium nitrate and gun powder into a small hole and setting up a detonation cord to form an explosion on a mountainside in Khenj, Panjshir, Afghanistan on the 28th July, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Javed Noora, an Afghan jeweller who specialises in making jewellery from precious and semi precious stones found in Afghanistan shows off the three different grades of emeralds found throughout the country at his workshop in Kabul, Afghanistan on the 2nd August, 2010.
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Afghanistan VIII, Rocks From A Hard Place
February 2011
Workers make jewellery in the workshop of Javed Noori in Kabul Afghanistan on the 14th August, 2010.
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