Islamic State militants in Afghanistan have made hundreds of thousands of dollars per year illegally mining talc, the product most famously used in baby powder, an advocacy group reported on Tuesday. According to Global Witness, 500,000 tonnes of talc were sent from Afghanistan to Pakistan in March, where it was later re-exported to the U.S. and the European Union. “Unwitting American and European consumers are inadvertently helping fund extremist groups in Afghanistan,” said Nick Donovan, the group’s campaign director.
