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Mining Investment

Kazakhstan’s Solidcore to Invest $25 Million in Japan Gold Exploration

Solidcore Resources, a leading Kazakhstan-based gold producer, is expanding into exploration in Japan. The company will invest $25 million in gold exploration across five project areas on the islands of Hokkaido and Kyushu, with the option to acquire interests of up to 80% in individual projects if exploration proves successful. Solidcore has partnered with Canada-based Japan Gold Corp., a company focused on mineral exploration in Japan. It has also acquired an 18.81% stake in Japan Gold for $6.85 million. If it exercises warrants allowing it to buy additional shares, its interest could rise to 19.9% on a partially diluted basis. Solidcore produces gold in Kazakhstan, and its shares are traded on the Astana International Exchange. In 2025, the company produced 395,000 ounces of gold equivalent, 19% less than a year earlier. Higher gold prices nevertheless pushed revenue up 13% to $1.5 billion. The partnership covers Hakuryu, Bajo, Mizobe, Ryuo, and Aibetsu, five of Japan Gold’s project areas. Three are on Hokkaido and two on Kyushu. Several are close to historic gold mines, while much of the surrounding territory remains underexplored using modern methods. At Hakuryu, drilling has already identified zones of high-grade gold mineralization. Geophysical surveys at Bajo detected anomalies interpreted as possible extensions of mineralized structures, with strike lengths of more than one kilometer. Mizobe lies in an area with geology similar to Hishikari, Japan’s largest commercially operating gold mine, which produced around 9 million ounces of gold between 1985 and 2025. Ryuo and Aibetsu include areas of historic mining. The Tokusei mine within Aibetsu produced 39,000 ounces of gold and 473,000 ounces of silver between 1930 and 1942. Solidcore CEO Vitaly Nesis said the company was attracted by the potential for large-scale gold discoveries and Japan’s relatively limited modern exploration. “Japan Gold’s license portfolio stands out to us. It has the makings of a large-scale, generational gold district with a distinctive style of geology that we have been historically successfully working with, in a stable, well-regulated, developed and notably under-explored jurisdiction,” Nesis said. Japan Gold holds mineral rights covering more than 3,000 square kilometers. In addition to the five project areas included in the agreement, it retains another 22 projects. The $25 million will fund drilling and other exploration work over three years rather than the purchase of developed deposits. After completing the program, Solidcore will be able to select the most promising areas and earn a 49% direct interest in one or more of them. If further studies indicate that mining could be economically viable, Solidcore will have the option to increase its interest first to 70% and then to 80%. To do so, it will have to fund a pre-feasibility study and then a bankable feasibility study for each selected project. Japan Gold Chairman and CEO John Proust said Solidcore’s strategy of expanding its reserves through geographic diversification fits with his company’s work building an exploration portfolio in Japan. The deal marks an overseas expansion for a major Kazakhstan-based gold producer. Within Kazakhstan, exploration and reassessment...

Fuel Supplies

Kyrgyzstan Looks to China to Diversify Fuel Supplies

Kyrgyzstan is looking to turn China into a more regular source of gasoline and diesel as it seeks to diversify its fuel supplies. Bishkek is discussing the construction of oil storage facilities near the Chinese border and a petroleum products pipeline with Chinese energy giants CNPC and Sinopec. Russia supplies around 90% of Kyrgyzstan’s fuel, according to President Sadyr Japarov. A new route could reduce dependence on a single supplier. The talks took place in Beijing on September 23. Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Erlist Akunbekov met with executives from CNPC and Sinopec. Kyrgyz companies are signing petroleum product supply agreements with the two groups, according to the Cabinet of Ministers. The talks come amid disruptions to Russian fuel supplies this year. Bishkek has proposed building oil storage facilities near Torugart and Irkeshtam, the two main road crossings between the countries. The storage facilities are intended to reduce logistics costs. A separate pipeline for petroleum products is also under discussion, providing another potential route for bringing fuel across the border. The talks also cover domestic production in Kyrgyzstan. The two sides are considering the construction of a new oil refinery, as well as joint exploration and development of oil fields. Chinese capital is already present in the sector. The Junda refinery in Kara-Balta, about 60 kilometers west of Bishkek, is controlled by a Chinese investor. The plant has an annual crude-processing capacity of up to 800,000 tons and is undergoing a nearly $194 million modernization program. The upgrade is expected to increase output and enable the refinery to produce Euro 5-standard fuel, which is subject to stricter limits on sulfur and other harmful pollutants. On the same day, Kyrgyz Cabinet Chairman Adylbek Kasymaliev met Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Hangzhou. Kyrgyzstan’s Energy Ministry and China’s National Energy Administration signed an agreement on cooperation in the electric power sector. The government statement did not specify which projects would be covered by the agreement. The proposed pipeline and border storage facilities remain under discussion, separate from the fuel supply agreements being concluded by Kyrgyz companies.

Technology Investment

Enterprise Uzbekistan Offers Tech Firms English-Law Framework and Tax Incentives Through 2100

Uzbekistan is offering international technology companies a separate legal regime based on principles of English law, tax incentives, three-year visas for foreign specialists, and a regulatory sandbox for testing new products. The measures will form the basis of Enterprise Uzbekistan, a new international center for digital technologies. Organizers presented the project a ICT Week Uzbekistan 2026, held in Tashkent from September 22 to 25, during which they hosted a dedicated Enterprise Uzbekistan Summit. [caption id="attachment_56891" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Davron Yakubov, managing partner at BDO Uzbekistan[/caption] The government hopes the new regime will reduce some of the risks foreign companies face when entering Uzbekistan, including changes in tax rules, commercial disputes, and restrictions on hiring overseas staff. The special regime is planned to remain in place through 2100, while conditions granted to participants are not supposed to become less favorable over time. Farkhod Ibragimov, Chief Executive of Enterprise Uzbekistan, said foreign companies entering a new market typically want to know how long incentives will last, how disputes will be resolved, and what tax, customs, and visa rules they will face. Sultonmurod Rasulov, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Enterprise Uzbekistan, argued that uncertainty itself imposes costs on businesses. “Uncertainty is a kind of hidden tax on every direction a business moves in and every decision it makes,” Rasulov said. For technology companies, he added, rapid economic growth alone is not enough. “Global clients do not buy Uzbekistan’s GDP. They buy certainty, they buy products, they buy predictability.” English Law, Commercial Court, and Regulatory Sandbox Enterprise Uzbekistan is being established as a separate legal environment for international technology companies. English will be the official language for documentation, while its legal framework will draw on the common law of England and Wales. Commercial disputes are expected to fall under the jurisdiction of the Tashkent International Commercial Court. “Even if the Enterprise Uzbekistan administration makes a wrong decision regarding a company, it will be able to challenge that decision in an independent court,” Ibragimov said. The center will also include a regulatory sandbox allowing companies to test products in areas where existing rules have not kept pace with new technologies. The regime is expected to cover cloud data storage and processing, international recruitment, and investment instruments familiar to foreign investors. Companies will be allowed 100% foreign ownership, while more flexible employment arrangements are planned for overseas specialists. Taxes and Visas Enterprise Uzbekistan plans to apply three main taxes: value-added tax (VAT), corporate income tax, and personal income tax. Priority activities may qualify for exemptions from corporate income tax and a zero VAT rate on sales abroad and within the center, subject to the final rules. Rasulov said highly qualified foreign specialists may also qualify for zero personal income tax on salaries and dividends. Foreign specialists are expected to be eligible for visas valid for up to three years, renewable without leaving Uzbekistan. Those meeting Enterprise Uzbekistan requirements will not need a separate work permit. Technology Exports and Talent Rasulov said Uzbekistan’s information and communications technology (ICT)...

Migration

Lithuania Closures Highlight Limits of Central Asia’s Migration Shift Away From Russia

Lithuania will close external service provider centers that accept migration documents in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan on November 1. A day before the announcement, Lithuania’s Migration Department said external service centers in Central Asia had stopped accepting new applications from residents seeking to come to the country for work after receiving a very high volume of employment applications. Lithuania had also exhausted its annual quota for foreign workers earlier in September. Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas said the November 1 closures were prompted by security risks and the threat of terrorism. The centers act as intermediaries, accepting applications for Lithuanian residence permits and initiating migration procedures Lithuania’s State Security Department has previously reported identifying individual members of the Central Asian community with radical views or links to terrorism. In its annual threat assessment, the agency also said that Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, has been recruiting followers within Central Asian diaspora communities in Europe. However, the agency said it considers it unlikely that Lithuania itself will become a direct target for Islamist terrorists in the near term. The security decision comes as Lithuania has also reached its annual foreign-worker quota. The country set a quota of 24,706 foreign workers for 2026, which was officially declared exhausted on September 7. Once the quota is reached, a temporary residence permit based on employment remains available if the worker meets a higher salary threshold or belongs to certain high-value professions that are in shortage and meets the separate salary requirement for those professions. As of September 1, nearly 227,000 foreign nationals held valid residence permits in Lithuania. They included around 13,000 Uzbek citizens and 7,400 Tajik citizens. Demand for Lithuania has grown alongside broader interest in the European labor market. Between 2018 and 2024, the number of valid EU work permits held by Uzbek citizens increased roughly eightfold, those held by Kyrgyz citizens more than sevenfold, and those held by Tajik citizens more than fourteenfold. Poland has become one of the main destinations, Germany is expanding organized recruitment, and the UK has become an important source of seasonal work, while labor mobility programs are also emerging elsewhere in Europe. Conditions are also changing in Russia, which for decades has absorbed most of the region’s labor migrants. Following the March 2024 Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, the authorities tightened migration rules, expanded registration requirements, and introduced greater digital monitoring of foreign workers. In the first half of 2026, citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan made around 1.9 million entries into Russia declaring work as the purpose of their trip, down from more than 2.3 million a year earlier. The decline does not mean that there is no longer dependence on the Russian labor market. In the first quarter of 2026, Russia accounted for 72.4% of cross-border remittances to Uzbekistan. In Kyrgyzstan, a March 2025 estimate put the number of citizens living abroad at roughly 600,000; around 380,000 were registered with Russian migration authorities at the end of 2024. For Central Asian migrants, European migration...

NVIDIA

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang Set for First Visit to Kazakhstan in October

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang is set to make his first visit to Kazakhstan on October 23, as the country expands its artificial intelligence infrastructure. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development announced the visit on September 23. Huang is scheduled to hold a fireside chat with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev at the alem.ai International Center for Artificial Intelligence in Astana. The event will close Kazakhstan’s AI Month program. The ministry said the discussion will cover developments in artificial intelligence, technology trends, the training of AI specialists, and Central Asia’s role in the global technology sector. The visit comes amid rapidly expanding ties between NVIDIA and Kazakhstan. In June, Kazakhstan announced agreements worth up to $10 billion connected to the Data Center Valley project under development in Ekibastuz. U.S.-based Firebird is developing the project using NVIDIA technology. NVIDIA Vice President Rev Lebaredian and Firebird co-founders Razmig Hovaghimian and Alexander Yesayan took part in talks with Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov. The project is planned to include a computing cluster of around 100,000 advanced GPUs, including NVIDIA GB300 and Vera Rubin systems. Kazakh officials initially allocated 300 megawatts of power capacity for the development, while the wider site is designed to scale to as much as one gigawatt. The first Data Center Valley facility is scheduled to begin operating in June 2027. The initial facility is planned at 50 megawatts, with the larger campus expanding in stages as additional customers and investment are secured. In July, the government said partners were rolling out 250 megawatts of infrastructure at the Ekibastuz project. Kazakhstan is already operating NVIDIA-based high-performance computing infrastructure. Two Kazakh systems appeared on the June 2026 TOP500 ranking of the world’s most powerful supercomputers. Alem.Cloud ranked 104th and AI-Farabium 122nd, with both systems using NVIDIA H200 accelerators. Kazakhstan has also announced a separate $2 billion sovereign AI hub to be operated by Freedom Holding using NVIDIA technology. The planned project would occupy a site with 100 megawatts of available power, with Freedom Holding as the principal financing and implementation partner. Visit Caps AI Month Huang’s visit is scheduled to conclude a month of AI-related events beginning September 23. The program includes HackAlem AI, the AI & Digital Bridge 2026 forum, and a meeting of Kazakhstan’s Council for the Development of Artificial Intelligence. Lebaredian is expected to participate in the AI Council meeting on October 1. Huang’s visit comes as Kazakhstan accelerates an AI infrastructure buildout already spanning NVIDIA-powered supercomputers, large-scale data centers, dedicated power capacity, and plans for tens of thousands of advanced processors.

Foreign Investment

Karakalpakstan Investment Push Brings $7.6 Billion in New Projects

Uzbekistan has announced 58 projects worth about $7.6 billion in Karakalpakstan, ranging from wind power and data centers to transport and healthcare. At a September 18 ceremony, 11 projects worth $592 million were commissioned or launched, while construction began on 47 more with a combined value of $7 billion. The projects are expected to create around 8,000 jobs, according to the presidential press service. Wind Power Leads Investment Push Among the largest projects is the 1.5-gigawatt Kungrad Wind Farm, being developed with Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power. The Uzbek government values the project at $2.6 billion, although ACWA’s own project page puts its cost at just over $3 billion. The development includes extensive new transmission infrastructure and substation upgrades to connect the plant to Uzbekistan’s power grid. The wind farm will also include a 300-megawatt battery energy storage system. Once completed, it is expected to become one of the largest wind power projects in Central Asia. ACWA is already operating renewable energy facilities in Karakalpakstan. The Nukus-1 and Nukus-2 projects have a combined wind power capacity of 300 MW, along with 100 MW of battery storage. According to ACWA Central Asia President Abid Malik, the company’s planned, operational, and under-construction projects in Karakalpakstan represent about 2.3 GW of generation capacity and around $4 billion in investment. The projects are expected to generate about 8.77 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, enough to cover the energy needs of approximately 2.4 million households, while saving around 2.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas. “Karakalpakstan is becoming one of the most vital investment destinations for ACWA in Uzbekistan,” Malik told The Times of Central Asia. He said construction of the Kungrad project could create around 4,000 jobs at its peak, while local content could reach approximately $750 million. ACWA is also supporting workforce development, with 78 students from Karakalpakstan currently studying at Shirin College to prepare for work in the country’s energy sector, Malik said. The ceremony also marked the launch of two wind power plants with a combined capacity of 300 MW and a 100 MW energy storage system in Karauzyak district. Health, Digital and Transport Projects Other projects launched during the visit included the $27 million Sheikh Khalifa Hospital in Nukus, built in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates. The 100-bed facility has created 80 jobs. A Karakalpak Scientific and Practical Medical Academy is also being established for medical training and research. The first phase of a modular computing center operated by the Chinese company Shanghai LinkWise Data Intelligence was launched in Takhiatash district. The presidential office valued the phase at $150 million. Chinese partners are also involved in projects worth a combined $2.281 billion to “produce digital currency” and establish artificial intelligence data centers in Kungrad and Takhiatash. The presidential statement did not identify the partners or explain what producing digital currency would entail. Transport infrastructure is another focus. A $20 million project by SAPSAN TRANS NO‘KIS has already delivered 25 buses and electric buses to Nukus, with another 75 electric buses...