Private company AGI Ltd has announced plans to conduct copper exploration at the Shat licence area in the Karkaralinsky District of Karaganda Region, according to a notice of planned activities published on Kazakhstan’s environmental portal.
The company received a six-year solid mineral exploration licence on 23 December 2025. The Shat site covers an area of 8.87 square kilometres and is located 260 kilometres east of Karaganda and 26 kilometres west of the settlement of Ainabulak.
The exploration programme involves drilling trenches and collecting a total of 16,800 core samples weighing more than 67 tonnes, 1,260 channel samples totalling 315 kilograms, and 25 geochemical samples weighing 7.3 kilograms. All samples will be transported to Karaganda for laboratory analysis. Upon completion of fieldwork, AGI Ltd plans to produce a final geological report with a mineral resource and reserve assessment prepared in accordance with the KazRC standard. The primary objective is a geologically substantiated evaluation of the site’s copper prospectivity, with forecast resources to be assessed at P1 category level by comparison with analogous commercial deposits.
AGI Ltd was registered at the Astana International Financial Centre on 2 July 2025. Its co-owners are listed as Mariyam Ospanova, Abilzhan Khusainov and Ainur Mukhatayeva. Khusainov is an honorary citizen of Kokshetau, a doctor of biological sciences and a professor at Ualikhanov University, while Ospanova is the director and sole owner of a food retail business in Atyrau.
The third co-owner, Ainur Mukhatayeva, also holds a stake alongside China Nonferrous Mining Corporation and Saltanat Sabdykeyeva in SM Minerals Ltd, a separate AIFC-registered company focused on copper ore mining and processing. That connection is notable given recent developments involving China Nonferrous Mining’s Kazakhstani footprint: in December, the Chinese state-backed group paid $89 million to raise its stake in SM Minerals to 70%, which holds subsoil rights at the North and South Benkala copper deposits in Aktobe Region — a project the company has identified as one of its key assets outside Africa.
The announcements come as copper prices remain elevated, trading above $12,300 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange, having briefly reached a record above $14,000 per tonne in late January.
