Kazakhstan presents draft of new geological exploration programme

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan – The draft concept of the state geological exploration programme for 2021-2025 was presented at a government meeting on 18 February.
“For the implementation of the programme, it is planned to allocate about 200 billion tenge ($530 million) from the state budget, as well as attracting about 800 billion private investment ($2 billion),” the prime minister’s website said.
“Existing deposits are gradually being depleted. At the same time, the knowledge of the territory of Kazakhstan is a little over 25%,” said Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Askar Mamin said.
Effective implementation of the state geological exploration programme will attract additional private investment of up to four tenge per tenge invested, Mamin added.
“At the discovery of the fields, new production complexes will be created, which will attract up to six trillion tenge of investments and create about 20,000 additional jobs,” Mamin said.
The head of government instructed the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources to ensure the introduction of the draft state programme to the government by 31 May 2020.