TOKYO — Afghan President Hamid Karzai prepared to wrap up a five-day visit to Japan on Sunday after pledging the host nation would be granted priority to explore and extract untapped mineral resources recently valued at more than $1 trillion.

Karzai said the leg up in mineral exploration would be granted in return for the aid Japan has given his nation.

‘Morally, Afghanistan should give access as a priority to those countries that have helped Afghanistan massively in the past few years,’ he said, noting Japan has been his country’s No. 2 aid donor.

‘What . . . we have to reciprocate with is this opportunity of mineral resources, that we must return at the goodwill of the Japanese people by giving Japan priority to come and explore and extract,’ he said.

Karzai’s remarks were made Friday in a Tokyo meeting organized by the Japan Institute of International Affairs and reported in The Japan Times and other media.

Minerals valued

Geologists have known for decades about Afghanistan’s vast deposits of iron, copper, cobalt and gold.

The U.S. Department of Defense this week put a nearly $1 trillion price tag on the reserves, but Afghanistan’s Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani called that a conservative estimate. He said he’s […]