Maybe this report from The Independent was from 2018, or it has been so much condensed that history appears to be current news. Hamdullah Mohib was ambassador to Washington 2015-2018, and Mattis was Secretary of Defense 2017-19. The report Afghanistan’s National Peace and Development Framework was presented at the Brussels concerence in 2016, and the last iteration of this report was in January 2021 for 2021-25:
https://www.fao.org/faolex/results/details/en/c/LEX-FAOC218844/
Since the Taliban now control all of Afghanistan, the threat from IS Khorasan is not a big problem. The issue is that the Taliban government is not recognized by the UN, US, etc, so big mining companies cannot be involved. Even China gave up years ago on a project to mine copper.
Here is a map of resources:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/24/mapping-afghanistans-untapped-natural-resources-interactive (2021)
There is a railroad in Uzbekistan reaching the Afghan border, and from Pakistan the railway map shows a proposed line from the border to Kandahar in Afghanistan. So perhaps an extension to the rare earth deposits in Helmand might be possible, or processing could be done in the country.