Mining & Smelting

Mining represents 27% of the country’s GDP and has immense growth potential.

70 elements have been explored and 60 extracted so far in Kazakhstan. Its mineral and resources base consists of 5,004 fields with a net worth of $46 trillion.

Currently, the Industrialization Map of Kazakhstan includes 61 mining and smelting industry projects, with an investment of KZT 1.5 trillion ($10.0 billion). In 2011, 11 projects brought the economy a new worth of KZT 52.7 billion ($351.9 million) and 2,700 new jobs. The most significant of these include oil and gas, uranium, zinc, lead (2nd largest reserves in the world), manganese (3rd largest reserves in the world), and copper (5th largest reserves in the world).

In terms of production, Kazakhstan is in third place of production of titanium, seventh for zinc, eighth for lead, thirteenth for iron ore, fifteenth for copper and thirty fifth for steel. Other mining operations in the country focus on tungsten, bohrium, silver, chromites, copper, fluorides, molybdenum, and gold. About 80 percent of all mining industry products are exported to more than 30 countries, making 20 percent of the total exports and 30 percent of the country’s revenues.

To support the development of the mining and smelting industries, in 2010 the government approved the Mining-Smelting Industry Development Program for 2010-14. The program is aimed at rational and optimal use and development of mineral resources for the purposes of production of high-technology and science-intensive finished products. The government expects 107 percent growth of gross value added for metallurgy products.