Kazakhstan’s XVI MINEX Kazakhstan 2026 forum in Astana delivered a clear verdict: the country’s first wave of mining sector reform has laid important foundations, but a deeper, systemic second phase is now urgently needed if Kazakhstan is to realise its ambition of becoming a global critical minerals hub rather than simply remaining a large raw material exporter.
The forum’s central thesis — articulated by speakers from government, industry and the expert community — is that mineral resources must no longer be viewed purely as export potential, but as the foundation for value creation, technological modernisation and industrial sovereignty. MINEX executive chairman Artur Polyakov set the tone in his opening remarks, noting that Kazakhstan’s endowment of more than 9,500 deposits and significant global reserves of uranium, tungsten, copper, rare earth metals, lithium and graphite, combined with its location between Europe and Asia, gives the country the potential to become one of the world’s most important critical minerals centres. “But geology alone is not enough,” he said. “The key question is not whether Kazakhstan has resources, but how the country can turn them into long-term prosperity, industrial capacity and international partnerships.”
Vice minister of industry and construction Iran Sharkhan outlined the practical reform agenda: a transition to a royalty-based tax system replacing the mineral extraction tax, the introduction of a strategic investor status granting preferential conditions tied to domestic processing commitments, and 2025 amendments to the Subsoil Code aimed at simplifying regulation, attracting investment and digitalising procedures. Geological survey coverage has reached 2.038 million square kilometres against a 2026 target of 2.2 million square kilometres, and 17 new deposits were placed on the state register in 2025 alone.
The most pointed intervention came from Nikolai Radostovets, executive director of the Republican Association of Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises, speaking at the forum’s strategic session on the balance between regulatory control and investment. He acknowledged that the 2018 Subsoil Code was a landmark modernisation — introducing the first-application licensing principle, new approaches to geological data management and improved investor access to exploration. But in practice, he said, the code cannot be fully implemented because it was never synchronised with the Land, Water, Environmental and Tax codes. The result is a web of administrative barriers: difficulties obtaining land rights, contradictory water legislation requirements, excessive environmental procedures and misaligned tax norms that collectively slow both exploration and production projects and erode investment attractiveness.
The Association is calling for the second phase of subsoil reform to focus specifically on amending the adjacent codes that obstruct the Subsoil Code’s implementation. Concrete proposals include a land reservation mechanism for subsoil use purposes, simplified land allocation procedures for exploration and extraction, streamlined regulation of works in water protection zones, reduced bureaucracy in environmental permitting, and adjustments to royalty calculation methodology, processing taxation and the taxation of technogenic mineral formations.
The forum’s conclusion was unambiguous: for Kazakhstan to secure stronger positions on the emerging global critical minerals market, it requires modern legislation, quality geological data, predictable regulation, advanced technology and sustained investor confidence — and all of these must advance together.
