Afghanistan: In Spin Boldak, gold recycling on hold

Sitting à even the floor in the suffocating heat of a dilapidated workshop. by Spin Boldak, à On the border with Pakistan, Afghans recycle gold from electronic waste from rich countries, a profitable but ultimately doomed activity.

Without gloves or protective masks, armed with pliers or bare hands, these men, sitting cross-legged in their traditional outfit, the shalwar kameez, dismantle old televisions, computers or mobile phones that have arrived by the truckload from Japan, Hong Kong or Dubai.

But, more and more often, these devices no longer have gold to offer because electronics use less, or even none at all, of this precious metal due to its cost.

Sayed Wali Agha, owner of a workshop where gold is recovered from used electronic devices, in Spin Boldak, in Kandahar province, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

It's a painstaking job in one of the least “digital” countries in the world: only 18.4% of Afghans had access to the internet at the start of 2024.

“In one month, we recover 150 grams of gold,” Sayed Wali Agha, the fifty-year-old owner of a workshop in the border town teeming with all sorts of businesses and traffic, where tricycles, minibuses and rickety heavy goods vehicles compete for the dusty roads, told AFP.

“We sell each gram for 5,600 afghanis,” or 72 euros, he says.

– “A very tiring job” –

This trade was able to revive with the return of the Taliban to power in 2021, because the use of acid, which separates gold from other metals, “was banned by the previous government,” he recalls. The rise in gold prices has also been an incentive.

Workers extract gold from used electronic devices at a workshop in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

But extracting this precious metal – a good thermal and electrical conductor – from electronic components “takes a lot of time because we don't have a lot of equipment,” continues Mr. Wali Agha.

“It's very tiring work,” not to mention the acid fumes in particular, says the boss, one of whose 20 employees says he earns 150 euros per month, an income generally considered decent in the country.

Workers extract gold from used electronic devices at a workshop in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

After extracting the gold, workers throw away old computer circuit boards that form a small mountain, while other piles are piled up with the remains of cell phones or GPS casings – the other metals will be resold to other recyclers.

At the end of the chain, a worker has accumulated micrograms of gold in a tin basin, and another treats it with acid.

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A worker uses acid to separate gold from other metals in a workshop in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

Outside the workshop, a highly toxic yellow smoke rises into the azure sky: the gold is being stripped of its impurities.

In rich countries, all these operations are carried out with cutting-edge technology, quickly, effortlessly and safely.

In the neighboring workshop, Rahmatullah also employs about twenty men, in equally difficult working conditions.

“You have to (disassemble) 10 televisions to find one gram of gold,” explains the 28-year-old boss. Like his competitor, he believes that recycling gold “is a good business.”

Gold smelter Sayed Wali Agha shows gold powder extracted from used electronic devices in his workshop in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

But, he adds, “this profession has no future.”

The gold from Spin Boldak arrives about a hundred kilometers away, in the jewelers' workshops in the heart of Kandahar, the provincial capital. And in particular that of Mohammad Yaseen.

“It's very good quality gold, 24 carats,” says the 34-year-old jeweler, while melting the precious metal in terracotta cups with a blowtorch on an antediluvian brazier.

– Golden weddings –

But the market receives “less and less gold from Spin Boldak”, only “30 to 40 grams per week”, says the jeweler who melts 1 or 1.2 kilos of yellow metal every day thanks to other suppliers or the purchase of old jewelry.

A smelter extracts gold from used electronics at a workshop in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

“Japanese electronics contain gold, Chinese electronics do not,” he explains. And “the share of Japanese electronics is decreasing day by day while that of Chinese is increasing.”

So the recycling of Spin Boldak, which is “already suffering,” “will stop,” he also predicts.

In one of the world's poorest countries, trade in the precious metal is booming, driven by celebrations such as weddings, for which even the poorest Afghans often go into debt for years.

“The more weddings, the better our business,” says Mohammad Reza, a 36-year-old jeweler, who is shaping a rose gold tiara for an engagement, behind a tiny workbench in his workshop.

Ahmad Shekeb Mushfiqi, vice-president of the Kandahar Jewelers Association, in his shop near the old bazaar, on August 25, 2024 in Afghanistan © AFP – Wakil KOHSAR

For the vice-president of the Kandahar Jewelers Association union, Ahmed Shekeb Mushfiqi, “the tradition in Afghanistan is to owning gold.”

In his shop near Kandahar's old bazaar, “we have two types of customers,” says the 38-year-old, “people from the city who appreciate elaborate designs, and those from the countryside who like simpler designs.”

“If necessary, they can resell their gold.”

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