Critical Minerals - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 1 - 6 of 114

Digital Infrastructure

Kazakhstan and China Sign Deals Worth Over $15 Billion During Tokayev’s Shanghai Visit

Kazakhstan and China signed more than 70 commercial agreements worth over $15 billion during President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s working visit to Shanghai on July 16. The package covers artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, transport, finance, agriculture, vehicle production, and other high-technology industries. The documents were exchanged after a roundtable with Chinese executives. Akorda did not publish a full project-by-project valuation, and the package includes both agreements and memoranda. The headline figure represents the announced value of the documents rather than money already invested or spent. AI and Industrial Projects Among the main documents was a strategic partnership agreement between Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development and Huawei Technologies. The Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund signed a separate agreement to acquire Huawei technology and equipment. Samruk-Kazyna, Freedom Holding, the Astana city administration, and Geely Auto Group also signed a memorandum on electric-vehicle infrastructure and the use of artificial intelligence in Kazakhstan’s automotive industry. Kazakhtelecom and China’s HV & Submarine Hengtong Group agreed on the basic principles for developing the Data Center Valley project in Ekibastuz. The planned one-gigawatt cluster is intended to combine data centers, cloud services, supercomputing facilities, AI laboratories, research institutions, training programs, and technology startups. Further agreements covered robotics and research. Qazbot Technologies signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Agibot PTE, while the Almaty city administration, NERO Group, and UBTECH Robotics agreed to develop artificial intelligence and robotics in the city. Qazaq AI Research University and the Shanghai Innovation Institute signed a cooperation memorandum. The industrial package includes an agreement between Allur Group and Li Auto to produce Li Auto vehicles in Kazakhstan. Astana Group and Chery Holding signed a technology licensing agreement for OMODA and JAECOO production at the Astana Motors Manufacturing Kazakhstan plant. Qarmet, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, and a Chinese engineering company also agreed to cooperate on new coke oven batteries and a gas purification system. Transport and Logistics An investment agreement was signed for the first phase of a multifunctional terminal at the Port of Kuryk. Another document covers cooperation on two logistics parks at Khorgos-Eastern Gate, while Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Industry and Construction and NUCTECH agreed to work on inspection systems at border checkpoints and expand local production. Tokayev said around 85% of rail freight between China and Europe passes through Kazakhstan and that the country has invested more than $35 billion in transport and logistics infrastructure over the past 15 years. He also promoted the Smart Cargo platform, which is designed to combine customs, logistics, and commercial services in one digital system. The president also invited Chinese companies to invest in the extraction and deeper processing of critical minerals, agricultural technology, and the development of Alatau City. The government wants the new city to become a regional center for digital finance, asset tokenization, artificial intelligence, and advanced telecommunications. Tokayev said bilateral trade reached a record $49 billion in 2025, cumulative Chinese investment in Kazakhstan exceeded $30 billion, and more than 8,500 companies with Chinese participation operate in the country. Existing joint projects...

Middle Corridor

Daines’s Tour Signals an Emerging U.S. Caspian Corridor Strategy

Senator Steve Daines’s July 7–9 visit to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan brought three bilateral relationships into a single, compressed Caspian itinerary. In Baku, he met President Ilham Aliyev and senior economic and foreign-policy officials; in Astana, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and representatives of government and business; and in Ashgabat, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Although official accounts treated each stop separately, the sequence suggests a regional pattern whose significance exceeds any single announcement. Daines had already supplied the clearest public articulation of the governing logic in his June 11 speech to the Caspian Policy Center’s Trans-Caspian Forum. There he joined Central Asia and the South Caucasus in a discussion about westward connectivity, investment, and supply-chain diversification. Daines identified critical minerals, energy, telecommunications, and physical and digital infrastructure as fields for public and private investment, while calling for TRIPP, a Caspian gas interconnector, and a continuous route from Central Asia to Western markets that avoids Russia and Iran. Together, these sectors give the proposed route both commercial and strategic content, though not the form of a single named program. Read against the June speech, Daines’s itinerary marks an emerging corridor-centered effort aligned with the Trump administration’s broader Caspian engagement, even without a formal declaration of purpose. Azerbaijan Anchors the Corridor’s Western Connections Baku gives the corridor logic its strongest institutional and bilateral footing. Aliyev and Daines discussed Azerbaijan’s geopolitical role, regional peace, and TRIPP’s importance for transport connectivity. Separate meetings with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov extended the agenda to economic cooperation. With SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf, Jabbarov and Daines took up the Middle Corridor, energy, transport, digital development, and critical-mineral extraction and processing. Across the meetings, political, commercial, and technical portfolios converged around Azerbaijan’s place at the corridor’s western Caspian egress. The U.S.–Azerbaijan Strategic Partnership Charter, signed in February, places the Middle Corridor alongside energy, trade, transit, digital connectivity, and critical-mineral movement. It identifies Azerbaijan as an energy, transport, trade, and logistics hub for the Caspian region. Working groups regularize cooperation on trade, energy, connectivity, digital development, and security. The charter also calls for project lists and implementation roadmaps within three months of signing and for meetings at least once a year. In June, the first Azerbaijan-U.S. Economic Dialogue began translating that direction into an operational agenda. Government, financial institutions, and private-sector participants met on regional connectivity and transit, energy security, investment, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure. The agenda connected the Middle Corridor and TRIPP with logistics, the Southern Gas Corridor, critical mineral supply chains, transport and energy investment, and the Alat Free Economic Zone. Closing documents covered digital infrastructure, technology transfer, and industrial solutions. The workstreams are clear, but the consolidated project portfolio and its financing have yet to take public form. Azerbaijan’s role also rests on physical infrastructure already in use. The established Middle Corridor crosses Kazakhstan and the Caspian before passing through Azerbaijan and Georgia, then onward toward Türkiye or Europe via the Black Sea. At Alat, 70 kilometers...

Critical Minerals

Tajikistan Lithium Project Planned at Namadgut Deposit

Tajikistan plans to launch a lithium mining project at the Namadgut deposit in the Ishkashim district of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region within the next year, according to Minister of Industry and New Technologies Sherali Kabir. Around 80% of the equipment required for the project has already been delivered to Tajikistan, while substantial geological exploration has been carried out at the deposit. That said, the government has not disclosed the size or grade of its lithium reserves, nor the project’s expected output or cost. The Namadgut deposit also contains niobium, tantalum, and beryllium, in addition to lithium, according to Kabir. Niobium is mainly used to strengthen steel and in heat-resistant alloys for aircraft engines and other high-temperature equipment. Tantalum is used in compact electronic capacitors, including those found in phones and computers, as well as in aircraft-engine alloys. Beryllium is used in lightweight, high-strength components for the aerospace, electronics, and nuclear industries. Although global lithium prices recovered from their 2025 lows during early 2026, they remain around 70% below their 2022 peak. Kabir acknowledged that this fall in prices but argued that the presence of other valuable metals, whose prices may be more stable, could improve the project’s commercial prospects. The minister also believes that developing Tajikistan’s lithium industry could help attract major international companies involved in electric vehicle and battery production. “An electric vehicle requires aluminum for the body, copper for the wiring, and lithium batteries as a key component. We have these resources,” Kabir said. According to the minister, the development of lithium production could create opportunities for Tajikistan to establish higher value-added industries rather than limiting itself to raw-material exports. The Namadgut project forms part of a broader effort to develop Tajikistan’s critical-minerals sector. In 2024, officials reported the discovery of 15 new deposits of rare metals, including lithium, according to Mukhtor Fozilzoda, head of the geology department at Tajikistan’s Main Directorate of Geology. The deposits were identified in remote eastern areas, including Karasu, Agbasoy, Payron, and Rokhshif. Despite difficult terrain and harsh natural conditions, officials say advances in exploration technology have made it possible to study these regions more effectively. Fozilzoda said the discoveries could support the expansion of the mining industry, create jobs, and provide raw materials for battery manufacturing and other high-technology sectors. Kabir previously said Tajikistan intended to become the first country in the Commonwealth of Independent States to establish lithium production. According to the minister, Tajikistan possesses reserves of 10 of the 12 metals considered critical for the global green transition, with six already being produced domestically. Critical minerals are essential for renewable-energy technologies, including solar and wind power systems, electric vehicles, and battery storage. Kabir added that during the Soviet period, only three enterprises produced what he described as rare-earth metals, two of which were located in Tajikistan. Public accounts more clearly document Tajikistan’s Soviet-era role in uranium and broader rare-metal processing, particularly at the Leninabad Mining and Chemical Combine, now known as Vostokredmet. The government is now negotiating with international companies on...

Donald Trump

Tokayev and Trump Put Results at the Center of a Growing Partnership

Investment, nuclear security and a possible visit to Kazakhstan featured in a July 10 telephone call between Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and U.S. President Donald Trump. Tokayev began by congratulating Trump on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. He noted that the United States had become a global superpower within three generations and expressed support for what Akorda described as the Trump administration’s “common-sense policies”. The Kazakh president also said those policies aligned with his own vision of building a Just Kazakhstan based on law and order. The language reflected the increasingly warm tone of the relationship and Tokayev’s effort to engage Trump through themes of national strength, order and economic achievement. The discussion soon turned to results. Tokayev reported progress in implementing agreements reached during his November 2025 visit to Washington. During that visit, Kazakh and U.S. partners announced 29 deals and cooperation initiatives worth nearly $17 billion, according to Kazakh officials. They included a planned $1.1 billion tungsten project involving U.S.-based Cove Capital. Kazakhstan’s scale gives the relationship wider strategic weight. By far Central Asia’s largest economy, it accounted for 56.4% of the combined GDP of the region’s five states in 2025, based on World Bank data. Kazakhstan also held 66.4% of Central Asia’s inward foreign direct investment stock at the end of 2025, according to UNCTAD. Its importance to the United States and its allies is equally concrete. Kazakhstan-origin material accounted for 24% of foreign-origin uranium deliveries to U.S. civilian nuclear-power operators in 2024, second only to Canada, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Kazakhstan also accounted for 12.7% of the value of the European Union’s crude petroleum-oil imports from outside the bloc in 2025, behind only the United States and Norway, according to Eurostat. That economic and strategic weight helps align the priorities of the two governments. Washington wants dependable sources of critical minerals and more resilient supply chains. Kazakhstan wants American capital and technology to expand processing, manufacturing and higher-value production. The November package provided a framework for moving the relationship from political interest toward concrete commercial projects. Senator Steve Daines has helped sustain that momentum. Akorda specifically mentioned Tokayev’s recent meeting with Daines, alongside his contacts with U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor, other White House officials and American business leaders. Daines has become one of Washington’s leading advocates for closer engagement with Kazakhstan and the wider Caspian region. In a June speech on U.S. relations with the region, he called for new mines, upgraded infrastructure and artificial-intelligence investment. He also pressed Congress to repeal the Jackson–Vanik restrictions still affecting Central Asia. For Kazakhstan, the lingering Cold War-era measure leaves normal trade relations subject to annual review rather than permanent status. Its removal would provide greater political certainty for long-term American investment. The most strategically significant language in the Akorda readout concerned nuclear non-proliferation. Tokayev reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s commitment to “non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and enriched uranium” and stressed close collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure effective...

U.S.-Turkmenistan Relations

U.S., Turkmenistan Draw Closer with Senator’s Visit to Ashgabat

Turkmenistan wants to deepen cooperation with the United States in areas including fuel and energy, transport, finance, banking, and artificial intelligence, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov has told a visiting U.S. senator. Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who is a leading advocate of U.S.-Central Asia collaboration, also met Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Serdar’s father and powerful predecessor, as well as Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, in Ashgabat on Thursday. “Our country, endowed with rich natural resources, is implementing a strategy of diversifying energy supply routes and stands for the development of mutually beneficial cooperation based on equal consideration of the interests of producers, consumers, and transit countries,” state media said in a report on the meeting between the president and Daines. Turkmenistan has large natural gas reserves, and China is the primary buyer. Although Turkmenistan is one of the most closed countries in the world, it has been taking steps to expand international contacts and develop its role in the so-called Middle Corridor, a trade network that links China and Europe via Central Asia and has grown in importance during the Russia-Ukraine war. The United States, meanwhile, is building closer ties with Central Asian governments, seeking access to critical minerals and energy, and aiming to reduce Chinese and Russian influence in the region. Daines serves on several Senate committees, including energy and natural resources. He has said he won’t seek re-election this year. Commenting on the senator’s visit, state media in Turkmenistan noted that some major American companies, including Boeing, General Electric, John Deere, and Case New Holland, had been involved in projects in the country for years. U.S. goods trade with Turkmenistan was $152.7 million in 2025, according to U.S. government data. U.S. goods exports to Turkmenistan last year were $113.3 million, up 43.6% from the previous year, and U.S. goods imports from Turkmenistan were $39.4 million, up 169% from 2024. While those numbers are low compared to the volume of trade between the United States and bigger trading partners, the annual percentage increase is notable. A day before his meetings in Turkmenistan, Daines was in Kazakhstan, where he discussed trade and diplomatic ties with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Kazakhstan's leader said he looked forward to traveling to Miami in December to participate in the G20 summit.

Critical Minerals

Kazakhstan and South Korea to Establish Rare Metals Research Center in Almaty

Kazakhstan and South Korea are establishing a joint research and technology center in Almaty to support the development of Kazakhstan’s rare metals and critical minerals industry. The Kazakh-Korean Center for Rare and Rare Earth Metals will be established at Satbayev University in partnership with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology and the Korea National Institute of Rare Metals. During a meeting on July 9, representatives of the three institutions discussed how the project will be carried out. They also reviewed the purchase of modern laboratory equipment and long-term scientific and technological cooperation. The center will train specialists for Kazakhstan’s growing rare metals industry and give local researchers access to modern analytical and processing equipment. It will also support joint research with international partners. “The combined scientific potential of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea will enable the implementation of modern technologies for processing strategic raw materials, expand scientific research, and train world-class specialists,” Satbayev University Rector Meiram Begentayev said. According to the university, the facility will become Kazakhstan’s first full-cycle scientific and technological platform dedicated to developing, testing, and commercializing environmentally friendly technologies for the production of high-purity and ultra-high-purity rare and rare earth metals. The center will also conduct fundamental and applied research and pilot new technologies for processing mineral and industrial raw materials. The initiative is part of Kazakhstan’s effort to become a major supplier of critical minerals. Demand is rising from electric vehicle makers and renewable energy companies, while semiconductor and defense industries are also increasing their need for rare metals. Speaking at the C5+1 Critical Minerals Dialogue in Astana on June 10, Minister of Industry and Construction Yersaiyn Nagaspayev described critical minerals as a strategic priority for Kazakhstan’s industrial policy and long-term economic development. He said the country has more than 9,500 mineral deposits, including over 100 containing rare and rare earth metals. Nagaspayev has previously said Kazakhstan is capable of supplying 19 of the 50 critical raw materials identified by the United States and 21 of the 34 minerals included on the European Union’s critical raw materials list, positioning the country as an increasingly important participant in global supply chains. Kazakhstan already produces strategic materials including beryllium, titanium, tantalum, niobium, rhenium, antimony, bismuth, selenium, and tellurium, both as primary metals and as components used in advanced industrial applications.