Watchdog: Afghanistan's Lapis Lazuli is a 'Conflict Mineral'

Afghanistan's mineral wealth is helping fuel the war that has long ravaged the country, with armed anti-government groups, including the Taliban, earning up to $20 million a year from illegal mining of lapis lazuli, a London-based corruption watchdog said on Monday.   The group, Global Witness, appealed in its new report to have lapis lazuli, a blue stone almost unique to Afghanistan, classified as a "conflict mineral.''   The lapis lazuli mines are mostly...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - lundi 6 juin 2016