Kazakhstan plans to offer investors favorable terms to explore and develop complex mineral deposits

ASTANA. Dec 3 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan plans to offer investors favorable terms to explore and develop geologically complex mineral deposits.

"We should understand that geological exploration is associated with high geological and financial risks. According to world statistics, exploration projects are only 20-30% successful, and that is why such projects need support, favorable conditions for investment, new incentive mechanisms and necessary amendments to the legislation. The ministries of industry and energy need to develop specific mechanisms and propose necessary amendments to the legislation in order to attract investment in the geological exploration sector, which would include preferences for the development of deep horizons and difficult deposits," Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said at a Tuesday meeting of the government.

The government press service told Interfax that such measures would include "a full package of government support mechanisms so that enterprises can develop difficult deposits", and the government support will primarily be directed at geological exploration.

The prime minister asked the relevant government agencies and the Samruk-Kazyna Fund to create a specialized accredited laboratory for rock analysis and to organize a scientific ecological and geological cluster on the basis of the National Geological Service.

By the end of the year, the government will have developed a mechanism for financing and conducting airborne geophysical surveys. The government agencies and the National Geological Service were instructed to speed up the digitalization of historical data and to ensure that this database is kept safely.

To date, the area of explored subsoil in Kazakhstan has reached 2 million square kilometers. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has asked the government earlier to increase the explored area up to 2.2 million square kilometers by 2026, Bektenov said.