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The Taliban are sitting on $1 trillion worth of minerals the world desperately needs
塔利班坐拥世界亟需的价值一万亿美元的矿产资源
The swift fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters two decades after the United States invaded the country has triggered a political and humanitarian crisis. It's also causing security experts to wonder: What's going to happen to the country's vast untapped mineral wealth? Afghanistan is one of the poorest nations in the world. But in 2010, US military officials and geologists revealed that the country, which lies at the crossroads of Central and South Asia, was sitting on mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion that could dramatically transform its economic prospects.
美国入侵阿富汗20年后，阿富汗迅速落入塔利班武装分子手中，引发了一场政治和人道主义危机。这也引起了安全专家的思考：这个国家巨大的未开发矿产财富将会发生什么？阿富汗是世界上最贫穷的国家之一。但在2010年，美国军方官员和地质学家透露，这个位于中亚和南亚十字路口的国家，拥有价值近1万亿美元的矿藏，可能极大地改变其经济前景。
Supplies of minerals such as iron, copper and gold are scattered across provinces. There are also rare earth minerals and, perhaps most importantly, what could be one of the world's biggest deposits of lithium — an essential but scarce component in rechargeable batteries and other technologies vital to tackling the climate crisis. Afghanistan is certainly one of the regions richest in traditional precious metals, but also the metals [needed] for the emerging economy of the 21st century.
铁、铜、金等矿产的供应分散在各个省份。这里还有稀土矿物，或许最重要的是，这里可能蕴藏着世界上最大的锂矿藏之一。锂是可充电电池和其他应对气候危机至关重要的技术中必不可少但又稀缺的成分。阿富汗无疑是传统贵金属最丰富的地区之一，但也是21世纪新兴经济体（所需的）金属最丰富的地区之一。
Security challenges, a lack of infrastructure and severe droughts have prevented the extraction of most valuable minerals in the past. That's unlikely to change soon under Taliban control. Still, there's interest from countries including China, Pakistan and India, which may try to engage despite the chaos.
在过去，安全挑战、基础设施的缺乏和严重的干旱阻碍了大多数有价值的矿产的开采。在塔利班控制下，这种情况不太可能很快改变。不过，包括中国、巴基斯坦和印度在内的一些国家对此感兴趣，尽管局势混乱，但它们可能会试图参与进来。
