Experts at the MINEX Kazakhstan forum in Astana have called for Kazakhstan to move decisively away from its raw materials export model and build domestic processing capacity across copper, polymetallic, rare and rare earth metals — arguing that the transition represents not a collection of individual projects but a fundamental restructuring of the national economy.
Artur Poliakov, managing director of Advantix and chairman of the MINEX forum, framed the stakes in systemic terms. “When processing emerges, the entire structure of the economy changes — new industries appear, supply chains form, jobs are created and the technological level rises,” he said. The shift, he argued, goes far beyond building factories: it requires creating the conditions under which investors can understand how they will operate, how their investments will be protected and what the economics of a project will look like. “It is not simply a matter of building plants — you need to create conditions where an investor understands how they will work, how their investments are protected, what the project economics will be. This is a complex task,” Poliakov said.
Participants emphasised that attracting investment and technology, alongside the establishment of clear and stable conditions for business, remain the decisive prerequisites for any meaningful progress on processing. Forum participants concluded that the development of mineral processing is a strategic priority on which the long-term resilience and competitiveness of Kazakhstan’s economy depends.
