TELF AG explores the mining potential of Central Asia

A sustainable transformation

While the world waits with bated breath for further concrete signs of the great ecological transition underway, significantly accelerated by the recent developments in the international COP28 discussions, many observers are starting to wonder who the main global suppliers of the raw materials will be needed for sustainable transformation.  

When we talk about the supply of raw materials, our thoughts almost automatically turn to China and its considerable production and refining capabilities, which have reached a truly high level in recent decades. Even today, Beijing holds the world record in the production and extraction of some of the materials most involved in the great green shift in which we are all involved. 

The emphasis that continues to be placed on China, from this point of view, has, however, prevented a good part of observers from dedicating the necessary attention to a region very close to it, and which in some way seems destined to play a leading role in global supplies of strategic minerals. We are referring to Central Asia, a region of great historical, economic, and cultural value that includes Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

At one time, until some decades ago, these nations were considered some of the major sources of industrial minerals and metals, particularly for their neighboring nations. Even today, in the midst of a great epochal change towards sustainability, Central Asia still represents one of the largest global suppliers of some specific raw materials necessary for the implementation of clean energy. 

In order to understand the size of Central Asian mineral reserves, it will be sufficient to cite some data. Few people know that around 38% of the world’s manganese reserves are concentrated in Central Asia. This mineral is widely used for the production of steel, as a binding agent for aluminum, but also for the production of batteries and in the chemical sector. It is certainly one of the minerals most involved in the diffusion of clean energy, especially due to its important role in the creation of electric vehicle batteries. The Central Asian region also has large reserves of chromium (30% of the world’s reserves), lead, zinc, titanium, and aluminum. Central Asian countries, although to a lesser extent, are also rich in copper, cobalt, and molybdenum. 

Even the roles of individual countries could prove to be of great importance for the global supplies of certain raw materials: think of Kazakhstan, which – in addition to having a large number of strategic minerals in its territories – can boast the world’s largest reserves of chromium, of which it is also the second global producer (this resource is also used for the construction of wind turbines). Neighboring Uzbekistan, the most populous nation in Central Asia, has a good chance of becoming an important regional hub for the export of critical minerals, and not just for its copper reserves (the eleventh in the world in terms of quantity). Tajikistan has one of the twenty largest global reserves of zinc. In contrast, Kyrgyzstan, despite not having reserves of the mineral as abundant as its neighbors, nevertheless has the potential to establish itself as a regional reference point for large-scale mining of zinc and other strategic minerals.