Kazakhstan’s state enterprise Zhezkazganredmet has signed a five-year offtake contract worth $107 million with British company Maritime House Ltd for the supply of rhenium metal produced from secondary raw materials, providing the commercial foundation for a $30 million rhenium processing plant planned for the city of Saran in Karaganda Region.
The long-term contract was signed at the Ministry of Industry and Construction in the presence of Minister Yersaiyn Nagassayev. The agreement is designed to ensure stable production loading at the new facility and underpins the investment case for the project before it has even been launched.
Maritime House is described as one of the world’s leading producers of metallic rhenium and has been collaborating with Zhezkazganredmet since 2023 on the development of technologies for extracting and processing rare earth elements from various raw material streams, including waste from the aviation and petrochemical industries. Zhezkazganredmet has already developed and implemented a technology for processing heat-resistant nickel alloys, with Rolls-Royce serving as the primary supplier of raw material supported by Maritime House — producing rhenium, nickel-cobalt concentrate and tungsten-tantalum concentrate in the process.
Looking further ahead, Zhezkazganredmet is planning to develop green technology for processing lithium-ion batteries from electric scooters, electric vehicles and power tools, in partnership with an Australian company. The enterprise also plans to form a consortium with Kazatomprom, SGS and Maritime House to extract rare earth elements from Kazatomprom’s uranium processing streams, and separately to process neodymium-based permanent magnets.
