TELF AG analyzes the role of a relevant player in the mining industry
The role of Kazakhstan
With its abundant mineral wealth and strategic location between Asia and Europe, Kazakhstan could soon carve out a leading place among the nations leading the energy transition. In terms of geographical extension, Kazakhstan is almost comparable to the whole of Western Europe, and its abundance of minerals is such that of the 110 elements included in the periodic table, 99 can be found in Kazakh territory.
With these numbers, the nation’s role in the near future, with the foreseeable increase in the global need for strategic minerals, would now seem well delineated. Kazakhstan’s role in the field of strategic minerals could also be favored by the global energy transition, in particular after the agreements reached in Dubai at Cop28. The progressive reduction in global consumption of fossil fuels such as oil – of which Kazakhstan is an important producer – could push the Kazakh economy to increasingly focus on its mineral resources. Until 2020, 73% of Kazakh exports were linked to oil and gas, but could the situation be about to change?
According to some recent data published by the International Energy Agency, global demand for certain specific raw materials could increase by up to 1000% by 2030. Among the materials most involved in these increases is lithium, which could one day become second to Kazakhstan’s oil industry. The fact that many Kazakh lithium reserves have yet to be discovered, given the enormous size of the nation, certainly adds elements of interest to the mineral potential of this country, especially from a future perspective.
The only certainty is that we are in truly decisive years for the energy and mineral development of nations and that some of them, by regularly cooperating with each other, could favor the global advance towards a more sustainable future. In addition to its abundant chromium reserves, Kazakhstan also boasts the world’s fifth-largest zinc reserves and eighth-largest gold reserves. It is among the top twenty nations in the world for copper and bauxite reserves.
Over the last few years, China is certainly among the nations that have had the opportunity to increase their mining cooperation with Kazakhstan. The presentation of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the largest infrastructure initiative of all time, took place in Kazakhstan in 2013, and since then, cooperation between the two states has never stopped increasing. In 2019, Kazakhstan became the second largest exporter of chromium to China, and between 2017 and 2020, molybdenum exports between Astana and Beijing grew by 444%. This material, in particular, is used especially for the construction of wind turbines.
In the cooperative approach towards Kazakhstan, great importance is certainly covered by the initiatives undertaken by national governments until Europe is able to propose a scope of collaboration comparable to that of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has made the launch of numerous extractive projects possible, mining cooperation between the European Union and Kazakhstan could remain limited.
