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🎙️ “Stop dawdling: Central Asia’s critical minerals revolution is here” (Raw Matters podcast Episode #11, with Amir Abidov)
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are ready to do CRM business with the EU but will not wait forever. Europe must decide quickly. Get on the bus or get left behind.
Some hard talk by Amir Abidov (UzTMK) in the Raw Matters podcast (Episode #11), hosted by Peter Tom Jones and Julia Poliscanova.
After months of posts, debates, MoU’s and Julia’s jokes about my “Central Asia obsession”, we finally bring Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan into the centre of Europe’s critical minerals narrative – where they belong.
For this episode we welcomed Amir Abidov, Deputy Chairman of TMK (Uzbekistan Technological Metals Complex), the massive state-led CRM company in Uzbekistan (population: 39 million). Getting Amir into the studio was a journey in itself, involving last-minute travel across Europe, a stop at Neo Performance Materials Silmet in Estonia, excessive heat, and a shared determination to make sure Central Asia speaks for itself in the EU CRM debate.
We open with the big picture: both Uzbekistan and #Kazakhstan have signed Strategic Partnerships with the EU. Both are rich in critical minerals. Both are moving fast. And both are ready to do business with Europe – now. The question is whether Europe can keep up.
With Amir, we explore Uzbekistan’s resource potential. We compare UZ and KZ – two neighbours with different strategies, different industrial legacies, and a different energy basis.
A key theme is the Green Resource Curse and how Uzbekistan can overcome it. Or better: how it is already taking massive strides in overcoming it. Amir explains how Uzbekistan is building real midstream and downstream cleantech capacity rather than just exporting raw materials.
We then confront the geopolitical reality: Can Europe offer a credible, respectful, win‑win collaboration model – or will it miss the bus? We compare the Chinese, US and EU approaches, discuss the CRMA, and outline what Uzbekistan actually expects from Europe: technology transfer, expertise and offtake. We also touch on the role of bottom‑up collaboration with research centres (such as SOLVOMET R&T Centre (KU Leuven)’s collaboration on rare-earth SX with UzTMK) as a complement to top‑down EU policy. In the ideal world both strategies support each other.
This episode is a wake‑up call for all Europeans. We need to recalibrate our position in the world, be more humble and react faster. Europe must decide whether it wants to be on the bus, or watch it drive away.
