The United States is moving to reinforce its supply of rare earth elements through cooperation with Kazakhstan, following the signing of non-binding long-term partnership agreements between US-based and Kazakh mining company .
The agreements were disclosed by , which is currently in the process of combining its business with REAlloys. Further details of the cooperation were reported by Mining Technology.
The partnership is aimed at securing Kazakh raw materials for REAlloys’ processing facilities. The two companies plan to jointly explore and develop rare earth element deposits in Kazakhstan, with extracted material to be processed and refined before being shipped to REAlloys’ production sites in North America.
Following around six months of negotiations, the partners identified several promising sites. A central element of the agreement relates to offtake from Altyn Group’s Kokbulak project. More than 350 million tonnes of iron ore are located across an area of roughly 127,000 square kilometres in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda and Kostanay regions. Processing of iron ore tailings is expected to yield concentrates rich in both light and heavy rare earth elements, including terbium and dysprosium.
To support future deliveries, Altyn Group plans to invest in expanding REAlloys’ processing capacity in the United States, including the country’s only rare earth metallisation facility. The plant supplies a number of government-linked customers and supports demand from high-technology industries.
Altyn Group Qazaqstan is registered in Kurchatov, Abai Region, and is a subsidiary of UK-based . The company is active in the exploration and mining of gold, silver and rare metal ores.
From 2025, Altyn Group has also planned to begin development of the Ulken-Karashoky gold-copper deposit in the Abai Region, alongside reported plans to extract gold-silver ores at the Mailikara deposit in Pavlodar Region.
