I do not think that success and respect for someone else are related. The idea that someone will respect you because you have purposefully kept them ignorant is deeply flawed, I'd say.
The point is not that SOME mining can pollute less, it is that mining involved digging ore out of the ground, and that means stripping off the vegetation, either to get at the ore, or to use trees for timber to prop up shafts. It also involves digging out tailings, which contain toxins that ruin the water table. In a poor country like Afghanistan it is likely to be worse than what mining companies are doing right now, in Appalachian coal mines and the Alberta tar sands. It is not clear what minerals they have identified in Afghanistan, but mining has rarely brought prosperity to any country. The money very quickly vanishes and goes elsewhere.
West Virginia and South Dakota, Bolivia and Nauru, are NOT prosperous places, despite all the mining.