According to the comments made by the head of the national company, Erlan Galiev, during the capital conference “Increasing the Investment Attractiveness of Kazakhstan’s Mining Industry,” organized by the Kazakhstan Mining Chamber and reported by inbusiness.kz, the NGS intends to create a database specifically for primary geological information within the minerals.gov.kz portal.
The minerals.gov.kz platform, which supports solid mineral exploration, was launched into industrial operation last year with the technical support of the national company “Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary.” The Subsoil Code, which came into effect in 2018, anticipated the creation of a special information system in the form of a National Bank of Mineral Resources, through which market participants could access all geological information and submit online applications for subsoil plots based on the “first come, first served” principle.
Galiev mentioned that 20% of all primary geological information was digitized last year, and this year, they plan to digitize another 30%. By the end of 2025, they expect to fully digitize and populate the minerals.gov.kz IT platform with primary geological reports from the NGS.
Regarding the selection of IT solutions, negotiations are currently underway with potential suppliers, whom Galiev preferred not to name, among global vendors with experience in working with national geological data banks for Asian, European, and American countries.
Galiev emphasized the necessity of a separate database for primary geological information to ensure that it is properly structured, cataloged, and accompanied by metadata for the convenience of investors. He explained that the information digitized last year is currently stored on hard disks because simply dumping it into the system without proper organization would be incorrect. The data must be cartographically referenced, and if it involves geophysical information, it must be visualized.
Galiev clarified that all primary geological data will be stored as part of the activities of the state technical service in Kazakhstan. After digitization, the reports will be translated into English using optical character recognition and artificial intelligence technologies.
Currently, the downloaded secondary geological data cannot be accessed as minerals.gov.kz is migrating to another platform with the participation of “Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary.” Once the migration is complete, mechanisms for downloading geological reports will be linked to the platform, and users will be able to access them after connecting the acquiring tool.
Galiev addressed the issue of increasing fees for providing geological data, stating that the pricing list was approved in 2022 and has not been changed since. He emphasized that efforts are being made to improve data packaging for users and expedite the process, reducing the waiting time for reports from several months to 10 working days, or two days at most if the report has already been scanned. Thus, there are no plans to increase fees for geological data provision.
