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Kazakhstan Strengthens Position in Global Critical Minerals Market

Kazakhstan has the potential to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals essential for the global energy transition and the expansion of the electric vehicle market, according to analysts at the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). An AIFC study highlights Kazakhstan’s competitive advantages in exporting copper, zinc, aluminum, silver, and lead. Additionally, nickel, gold, lithium, and rare earth metals are seen as promising sectors for export expansion. Kazakhstan holds a 5% share of the global zinc market, ranking seventh in reserves with 6.7 million tons. In 2022, Turkey, Russia, and China accounted for 70% of Kazakhstani zinc exports. The country also controls about 4% of the global copper market, with 20 million tons in reserves, placing it 11th worldwide. Its main copper buyers in 2022 were China, Turkey, and the UAE. Kazakhstan ranks eighth globally in lead reserves (2 million tons) and 12th in production, with 40,000 tons mined in 2021. Global lead demand is projected to rise from 11.6 million tons in 2022 to 13.4 million tons by 2031. In the silver market, Kazakhstan holds the third-largest reserves, accounting for 2.7% of global supply. In 2023, Kazakhstan ranked 11th in global bauxite reserves (160 million tons) and 10th in production (4.3 million tons), though its aluminum market share remains below 1%. The primary destinations for aluminum exports are Turkey, Italy, and Greece. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan is among the world’s top 20 nickel-producing countries, holding reserves of approximately 1.5 million tons, or 2% of global reserves, though its market share remains small. The country is also actively exploring lithium deposits in collaboration with companies from Germany, the UK, and South Korea. In March 2024, South Korean specialists discovered a lithium deposit in East Kazakhstan with a content of 5.3%, valued at an estimated $15.7 billion. Kazakhstan has also strengthened its position in the critical minerals market through international agreements. It recently signed a contract with the European Union worth €3 million for the supply of essential raw materials.

Ivanhoe Mines Begins Exploration of World’s Third-Largest Sedimentary Copper Basin in Kazakhstan

Canadian mining company Ivanhoe Mines has announced a joint venture with UK-based Pallas Resources to explore the Chu-Sarysu Copper Basin in Kazakhstan - the world’s third-largest sediment-hosted copper basin, containing 27 million tons of known copper. Exploration Plans and Investment Ivanhoe Mines has acquired an initial 20% equity stake in the joint venture and has committed $18.7 million in exploration expenditure over the next two years. License applications, submitted in Q4 2024, cover an area of approximately 16,000 km². Pallas Resources has digitized extensive Soviet-era geological data covering the license area. Initial analysis has identified multiple potential copper targets, which will be further explored following an airborne geophysics survey later this year. After the initial two-year phase, Ivanhoe has the option to increase its stake by investing up to $115 million over the next four years, depending on how much of the license area it retains. If a major copper deposit is discovered, Ivanhoe can secure up to an 80% equity stake by financing and completing a pre-feasibility study. Significance of the Chu-Sarysu Basin Ivanhoe Founder and Executive Co-Chairman Robert Friedland emphasized Kazakhstan’s importance as a key mining jurisdiction and home to one of the world’s most significant copper basins. “The Ivanhoe Group has a long history in Kazakhstan... and we look forward to returning to this tremendous country to further unlock the significant geological potential of the Chu-Sarysu Basin,” Friedland said. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Chu-Sarysu Basin contains an estimated 25 million tons of undiscovered copper, further underscoring its untapped potential. The basin is also known to contain lead, zinc, silver, barium, and strontium deposits. Kazakhstan’s Mining Industry Kazakhstan is already a global leader in mineral production: World’s largest uranium producer. Second-largest chromite producer. Major producer of copper, zinc, iron ore, and coal. Mining and quarrying contribute approximately 14% of Kazakhstan’s GDP and 17.5% of its total exports, valued at around $10.5 billion.

Kazakhstan and Serbia Strengthen Ties Despite Different Geopolitical Paths

Serbian President Vucic (54) might physically resemble Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (71), but the geopolitical positions of Sebia and Kazakhstan could not be more different. While the Balkan nation – a European Union candidate since 2012 – remains in the EU’s “eternal waiting room”, the Central Asian country – a member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union – seems to have found a delicate balance between Russia, China, and the West. Those differences, however, have not prevented Serbia and Kazakhstan from strengthening their bilateral ties. Over the past six months, the two countries have been actively preparing for Tokayev’s trip to Serbia. This year, he spoke by phone with Vucic twice, while various Serbian and Kazakh officials held several meetings. On November 18-19, Tokayev finally visited the Southeastern European nation, where he met with his Serbian counterpart. According to the Kazakh leader, they discussed strengthening trade and economic relations and bilateral partnerships between the two nations. “It is essential that we develop cooperation. We had constructive talks and reached important deals,” Tokayev stressed. During his visit to the Balkan country, Serbian and Kazakh ministers signed several bilateral agreements. One of them is a 2025 plan on military cooperation. It is, therefore, no surprise that, following the talks in Belgrade, Vucic and Tokayev attended an exhibition of arms and military equipment at the Batajnica military airport near the Serbian capital. Indeed, military ties seem to be an important aspect of the Serbian-Kazakh relationship. Back in 2017, the two nations signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of military-technical collaboration. Six years later, in November 2023, Kazakhstan and Serbia inked intergovernmental agreements on military-technical cooperation, while in June of this year Serbian and Kazakh defense ministers discussed in Astana military relations between the two countries. Also, in September, Roman Vassilenko, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Foreign Minister, announced that Belgrade and Astana plan то expand cooperation in the defense industry. It remains to be seen how Moscow – Astana’s nominal ally in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – will react to Kazakhstan’s ambitions to deepen military ties with Serbia – a nominally neutral country that has indirectly supplied Ukraine with $885 million worth of weapons. Despite being in different geopolitical positions, Serbia and Kazakhstan seem to share the same approach regarding Ukraine. Both nations support the Eastern European country’s territorial integrity, while trying to preserve relatively good relations with the Kremlin. At the same time, they support each other’s territorial integrity, which is particularly important for Serbia given that Kazakhstan does not recognize the 2008 unilateral independence of Kosovo. In 2022, sitting next to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tokayev said that if the right to self-determination is put into practice worldwide, then there will be over 600 countries instead of the 193 states which are currently members of the United Nations. “For this reason, we do not recognize either Taiwan, or Kosovo, or South Ossetia, or Abkhazia… This principle will also be applied to quasi-state territories, which, in our opinion, are Lugansk and...

New Era of Mining Starts in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan will soon be issuing licenses for mining critical raw materials (CRM), which would have been almost unthinkable five years ago. However, a lot has changed in Kyrgyzstan, where a new president came to power in late 2020 and has since radically changed the form of leadership and is seeking new sources of revenue. A lot has changed in the world also, as governments are realizing the importance of CRMs for their economies and are scrambling to find supplies. Past Experiences Kyrgyzstan does not have significant reserves of natural gas or oil as most of the other Central Asian countries do. It was clear from the first days of independence that Kyrgyzstan’s main source of export revenue would come from mining, and Kyrgyzstan has significant deposits of CRMs. The Kumtor gold mine, 4,000-meters high in the mountains on the south part of the massive Lake Issyk-Kul, quickly became the economic savior for a country where most exports were agricultural products. Initial estimates put gold reserves at Kumtor at some 514 tons, but subsequent exploration revealed more gold at the site. Kumtor was a joint venture with Canadian company Cameco, but over time Cameco acquired nearly 75% of the project. There was environmental damage at the site that almost completely destroyed two nearby glaciers - Davidov and Lysiy. The most infamous incident involving Kumtor occurred in May 1998, when a Kumtor truck overturned into the Barskoon River, dumping nearly two tons of sodium cyanide into the water. Thousands of people were evacuated from area, several died, and business at Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan’s premier tourst attraction, plummetted. The example of environmental problems at Kumtor turned public opinion in Kyrgyzstan against mining projects. Some 20 year later, the issue again came to the fore over the Kyzyl-Ompol uranium site in the Tong district of Issyl-Kul Province. In April 2019, nearly 30,000 people signed a petition to halt work at Kyzyl-Ompol. Anti-mining sentiment grew and by October 31, 2019, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament approved a moratorium on exploration and extraction of uranium and thorium that was signed into law in December that year. Something Everyone Wants The European Commission wrote that CRMs are crucial for “producing a broad range of goods and applications used in everyday life and modern technologies,” and noted, “Reliable and unhindered access to certain raw materials is a growing concern within the EU and across the globe.” Additionally, the attempts by many nations to wean themselves off fossil fuels have led to a surge in countries seeking to construct nuclear power plants (NPP) to meet their energy needs. There are currently some 440 operating NPPs in the world, 60 new reactors are under construction, and another 110 are planned to be built. Current President Sadyr Japarov rose to power after Kyrgyzstan’s revolution in 2020. Japarov, who is from the Issyk-Kul area, was an opponent of foreign ownership of the Kumtor gold mine, and in 2021 his government forced out Canadian company Centerra (which took over from Cameco in 2004). Kumtor was...

Kyrgyzstan Begins Development of Large Titanomagnetite Deposit

Kyrgyzstan has begun developing its largest titanomagnetite deposit, Kyzyl-Ompol, in the Issyk-Kul region. Speaking at the launch ceremony on September 25, the Chairman of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers, Akylbek Japarov, emphasized that the state will develop and finance this strategic deposit. "This is a very important event for Kyrgyzstan. The Kyzyl-Ompol deposit contains millions of tons of titanomagnetite. Titanium is valuable in various industries, including medicine, aviation, and space. The development of this deposit will allow us not only to increase exports but also to create new jobs, which will give an impetus to developing the country's economy," Japarov said. Japarov also emphasized the importance of an environmentally friendly approach to the deposit's development, saying that technologies used to extract titanomagnetite will guarantee the safe extraction of associated minerals such as uranium and thorium. Early in June, the Kyrgyz parliament approved a government bill lifting a ban on the mining of uranium and thorium that had been in place since 2019. The move caused environmental concerns in Kyrgyz society, as the country still works on the rehabilitation and conservation of radioactive uranium waste sites left over from the Soviet era. The ban was lifted to start the mining of titanomagnetite, which is accompanied by uranium and thorium. The government plans to process both elements at the Kara-Balta Mining Combine, some 100 km west of Bishkek.

Uzbekistan and U.S. to Strengthen Cooperation on Critical Minerals

On September 16, the U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Jonathan Henick, and Uzbekistan’s First Deputy Minister of Geology, Omonullo Nasritdinkhodjaev, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals. As reported by the U.S. Embassy in Uzbekistan, the signing took place ahead of the Uzbek government’s participation in MINExpo INTERNATIONAL, the mining industry’s largest global event, which will take place from September 24 to 26 in Las Vegas. At the C5+1 summit in New York in September 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan announced their intention to launch a Critical Minerals Dialogue. The Uzbek-U.S. Memorandum signifies the intention of the United States and Uzbekistan to advance this effort, strengthen economic cooperation, and catalyze investment that advances the clean energy transition while protecting Central Asia’s unique ecosystems. As critical minerals and rare earth elements are essential for clean energy and other technologies, and play an increasingly important role in the economies of both countries, the Embassy said that the United States is actively working to encourage private sector investment in Uzbekistan’s mining sector. It added that the memorandum further reflects both nations’ shared goal of ensuring high environmental, labor, and governance standards in the global mining sector. Ambassador Henick commented: “The United States and Uzbekistan must cooperate to have resilient, secure supply chains supporting the future energy landscape. This memorandum demonstrates our commitment to diversifying global mineral supply chains and expanding our bilateral trade relationship. We are delighted to mark another milestone in our expanding Strategic Partnership with Uzbekistan.” In April 2024, Uzbekistan and the European Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding launching a strategic partnership on critical raw materials (CRMs). Uzbekistan has the second-largest reserves of CRMs in Central Asia (after Kazakhstan), with significant deposits of copper, molybdenum, and gold. The country's mining strategy aligns with its ambitions to increase CRM processing of CRMs for domestic and international industries, particularly in automotive and consumer electronics.