Kazakhstan to Invest 2 Billion US Dollars for Tungsten and Rare Earth Exploration

On tungsten and rare earth minerals, Kazakhstan plans to invest 2 billion US dollars for the exploration. The Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan recently stated that most of the resources being exploited in the country were proved during the Soviet period, and the output of some mining areas will be exhausted in the next 10 to 15 years. Therefore, the country plans to attract at least 2 billion US dollars for the exploration of domestic mineral resources. Besides oil and natural gas, the exploration objects may include tungsten, molybdenum, rare earth, and other metal minerals.

Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world, with excellent geological mineralization conditions. It is a world-famous super mineral country and it is abundant with oil, natural gas resources as well as copper, gold, nickel, cobalt, tungsten, rare earth, and other minerals. Relevant data show that in the 1990s, the country spent 8% of its resource income on exploration, and this ratio is currently only 1.8%.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced a national geological exploration planning plan from 2021 to 2025. It plans to attract a total of 780 billion tenges (equivalent to 133.66 yuan) to carry out geological exploration work. Increasing market complementation and improve international competitiveness.

The Minister of the Department also introduced in the report that gold, lead, molybdenum, rare earth, and other new deposits in the country have great prospecting potential and are planned to be developed between 2025 and 2040 Some large deposits to promote the local economy.

The mining industry is a pillar of the national economy in the country. According to data released by the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in 2019, the country’s total investment in fixed assets reached 12.5459 trillion tenges (about 33.2 billion US dollars), an increase of 8.5% year-on-year. Among them, the most attractive industry is mining, accounting for about 44.6 %. In 2019, industrial production in the country increased by 3.8% year-on-year, of which the mining industry increased by 3.7%, and the manufacturing industry increased by 4.4%.

However, due to the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic this year, the country's mining industry has also suffered a blow. From January to May 2020, the country's GDP shrank by 1.7%. The Asian Development Bank had previously predicted that the country’s economy would grow by 1.8% in 2020, but this forecast was adjusted to a 1.2% decline in June.

It is understood that the tungsten mine project invested by China in Kazakhstan has been postponed for two years, mainly due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and foreign labor issues. The project is located in the super large-scale open-pit Bakuta Tungsten Mine and is one of the ten largest reserves mines in the world.

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