Kazakhstan’s Senate on December 18 2025 approved amendments to the Code “On Subsoil and Subsoil Use,” according to a report by Zakon.kz. Senator Sagyndyk Lukpanov said the law is aimed at fulfilling presidential поручения on systematizing and digitizing the country’s geological information.
The amendments закрепляют the Unified Subsoil Use Platform as the sector’s core digital infrastructure, featuring an open database of geological data. The platform is designed to cover nearly all business processes and government services related to exploration and extraction of solid minerals and common minerals. It will also be integrated with the Unified State System for Managing the Fuel and Energy Complex, which is used to collect, store, analyze, and process subsoil information in the hydrocarbons sector.
The law also formally establishes the National Geological Service as the operator responsible for managing geological information. According to Lukpanov, the national operator will provide a centralized and standardized approach to monitoring the state subsoil fund, preventing duplication and fragmentation of data across institutions. The service, which is subordinate to the Geology Committee, will not be subject to privatization.
Another major block of amendments introduces electronic auctions as a mechanism for granting subsoil use rights. Auctions will be used to allocate free subsoil plots as well as areas where subsoil use rights have been terminated. In addition, the amendments raise the required share of domestic content in works and services from 50% to 70% for exploration and mining operations, including uranium.
The legislation also introduces a priority right for strategic investors to explore and mine solid minerals when implementing large industrial and innovation projects valued above 14.5 million MRP (over 50 billion tenge). Under the new rules, subsoil use rights for such projects may be granted outside the auction process, provided investors meet specified requirements.
Further amendments regulate the granting of subsoil use rights for technogenic mineral formations located within populated areas. One licensing condition is the mandatory removal of extracted technogenic mineral materials beyond settlement boundaries, followed by processing. The law also confirms investment preferences for subsoil users implementing solid mineral processing projects, provisions already reflected in the new Tax Code. These incentives include exemptions from corporate income tax and land tax for 10 years, property tax for 8 years, and VAT on imported equipment for 5 years.
For processing projects, the minimum investment threshold required to conclude a processing agreement will increase tenfold, from 7 million to 70 million MRP. The bill had previously been adopted by the Mazhilis in a second reading on November 19 as part of implementing presidential instructions.
