During a visit by the Senior Vice President of the Canadian company “Barrick Gold Corporation” Woo Lee, to Astana, a meeting was held with the Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ardak Zebeshev, and the Chairman of the Board of “NC “KAZAKH INVEST” JSC Meirzhan Yussupov. At the meeting, the parties discussed the possibility of implementing projects in the development of gold deposits in Kazakhstan.
“Barrick Gold Corporation” is the second largest company in the world in terms of mining pure gold, headquartered in Toronto, and implementing projects in countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Pakistan, and others. As of March 2023, the market capitalization of the company was $32.55 billion. The company has over 10,000 employees worldwide.
The Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ardak Zebeshev, noted the high potential for the development of cooperation between the Canadian company and Kazakhstan.
“Our country ranks 15th in the world in terms of gold mining and 10th in terms of gold reserves, and the state is interested in developing the industry together with foreign investors, attracting advanced ideas and new technologies. For Kazakhstan, the mining industry is second in importance after the oil and gas industry. According to data from last year, one-third of all capital investments go to the mining industry,” said Ardak Zebeshev.
The Chairman of the Board of “NC “KAZAKH INVEST” JSC Meirzhan Yussupov, spoke about the company’s activities and preferences provided to investors.
“The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan has done a lot of work to improve legislation in the field of geology and subsoil use, in particular, the procedure for granting the right to subsoil use for geological exploration has been radically simplified,” Meirzhan Yussupov explained.
In turn, Senior Vice President of Barrick Gold Corporation, Wu Lee, stated that the company is interested not only in gold mining but also in developing new deposits in Kazakhstan.
“Kazakhstan is a large country with enormous potential in mining and metallurgy. Recently, we have seen positive political and legislative changes in the country, and since last year we have been considering project implementation opportunities. We plan to register a company in Kazakhstan soon and start exploring deposits,” said Wu Lee.
During the visit organized by “NC “KAZAKH INVEST” JSC and the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Canada, the Canadian delegation held meetings with representatives of government agencies and businesses.