The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kyrgyz Republic has announced plans to boost annual gold production to 38 tons by 2030, a 46% increase compared to the previous year. Minister Meder Mashiev attributed this growth to the industrial-scale operations of China’s Zhong Ji Mining Company at the Solton-Sary deposit’s Buchuk site.
Located 355 km from Bishkek on the northern slope of the Kapka-Tash ridge, the Solton-Sary gold deposit will host a processing plant with an annual capacity of 600,000 tons of ore and approximately 1.8 tons of gold. In the long term, ZAO “Chaarat Zav” plans to develop the Chaarat deposit in the Chatkal district, which holds reserves exceeding 100 tons of gold.
Despite these ambitions, Kyrgyzstan’s gold output dropped to 26 tons in 2024, down from an average of 30 tons annually. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan reported a 4.6% rise in refined gold production, surpassing 74.2 tons last year.
