Militants with US-made arms complicate Washington's bid for critical minerals in Pakistan: CNN

The United States’ push to secure critical minerals from Pakistan is colliding with a worsening security crisis in the country’s border regions, where militants armed with US-made weapons are intensifying insurgent violence, a detailed report by CNN revealed on Tuesday.

According to the report, Pakistan’s mineral-rich areas, particularly in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, hold vast reserves of copper, lithium, cobalt, gold and other strategic metals valued at an estimated $8 trillion.

Sites such as the Muhammad Khel Copper Mine near the Afghan border have already produced tens of thousands of tons of copper, much of it exported to China, while the massive Reko Diq project has attracted more than $1 billion in US-backed financing as Washington looks to reduce its dependence on Chinese-controlled supply chains.

However, CNN reported that these mineral ambitions are unfolding in regions ravaged by decades-long insurgencies that have grown deadlier since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

During visits to some of Pakistan’s most volatile districts, CNN journalists were shown hundreds of US-manufactured rifles, machine guns and sniper weapons seized from militants, many bearing markings indicating they were originally supplied to Afghan security forces before being abandoned.

Near the town of Wana, the report documented how Pakistani officials displayed M-16 rifles recovered after a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) suicide attack on a military cadet college, along with personal items of the attackers. Military officers told CNN the advanced weaponry, including night-vision equipment, has significantly altered the nature of combat in the region, placing security forces at a disadvantage.

CNN’s reporting from a military hospital in Peshawar highlighted the human cost of this shift. Soldiers wounded in recent attacks described being targeted from long distances by militants equipped with superior firearms. Military doctors told CNN they are increasingly treating sniper wounds rather than injuries from improvised explosive devices, reflecting the changing tactics enabled by US-made arms.

The instability has raised serious questions about the feasibility of large-scale mining projects. The report noted that militant groups such as the TTP and the Balochistan Liberation Army have both been found using American weapons, complicating US-Pakistan cooperation on mineral extraction.

Despite these challenges, Pakistani military leadership told CNN that securing mineral-rich areas is a strategic priority and that operations will continue to protect investment and infrastructure. Analysts cited in the report warn, however, that Pakistan’s mineral belt has become a frontline where global competition for resources intersects with a resurgent insurgency empowered by abandoned US weaponry.

The race for critical minerals that are vital for electric vehicles, renewable energy and advanced technologies is increasingly shaped not only by geopolitics, but by armed conflict on the ground where American weapons now stand in the way of American interests, the report concluded.