[Ferro-A;;pus.com] Kazakhstan, a country immensely rich in natural resources, has opened its doors to European investments to leverage its geological potential fully, Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko told EFE on Monday.

“We are open to implementing investment projects with European partners, including those aimed at manufacturing end products,” Vassilenko said.

Raw materials in exchange for technology

Vassilenko highlighted that “Kazakhstan’s geological conditions have all the prerequisites to expand the variety of critically important raw materials extraction.”

“However, the absence of technology for extraction and processing, along with the low level of investments in Kazakhstan, does not allow us to fully utilize the potential of available raw materials and minerals,” he lamented, explaining his invitation to investors from the European Union (EU).

Kazakhstan, which already extracts 18 of the 34 rare minerals necessary for the EU’s economic development, proposes to Brussels an exchange of “raw materials in exchange for technology,” a cooperation that could significantly broaden the diversity of the extracted minerals.

This exchange is mutually beneficial, EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Kestutis Jankauskas, told EFE, noting that cooperation with the Central Asian country would allow the EU 27 to diversify their supply sources and avoid dependency on China, which accounts for 90% of supplies to Europe.

“This level of dependency is high. There should always be a choice, at least among three to five sources. The EU expects that Kazakhstan, and Central Asian countries in general, can become a viable alternative to China,” he said.

Cooperation between Astana and Brussels

Thanks to Astana’s efforts, which have included amending its legislation, simplifying the licensing process, and developing a digital platform to attract investors, 330 mining companies, including 25 foreign ones, began geological exploration in the country in 2023.

“Major international companies, such as Barrick Gold, Teck Resources, B2Gold, and First Quantum, decided to enter Kazakhstan. To date, more than 2,500 licenses have been granted,” Said Sultanov, General Director of the geological exploration company Aurora Limited, told EFE.

Vassilenko added that international cooperation in this sector received a boost thanks to the memorandum of strategic cooperation for the production of raw materials and green hydrogen signed between Astana and Brussels.

As examples, he mentioned the cooperation between two Kazakh companies and a German one for the development of lithium deposits in eastern Kazakhstan, worth $600 million, and the agreement reached in June 2023 by the Kazakh company Creada Corporation and Germany’s HMS Bergbau AG on investments for the exploration, extraction, and processing of rare mineral compounds, a business amounting to $200 million.

Additionally, he informed about the signing of technological cooperation memoranda between the Kazakh company Zhezkazganredmet and the Dutch SGS Netherlands, and between the National Geological Service of Kazakhstan and the Spanish Xcalibur Multiphysics Group.

Ecology, the pending issue

However, despite the steps taken to improve the investment climate in the country, the issue of ecological licensing, which “needs to be simplified,” remains pending, according to Sultanov.

The businessman recalled that a new Ecological Code, entailing a long and complicated bureaucratic process, was approved in 2021, which has already frustrated several projects.

At the same time, he denounced that the Kazakh state sometimes turns a blind eye to ecological regulation violations by mining companies, which often do not mitigate the consequences of their industrial processes. EFE

• [Editor:tianyawei]