MINEX Forum

Tag: Kazakhstan gold exploration

  • General Base Minerals to Drill Over 20,000 Metres for Gold in Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone

    General Base Minerals to Drill Over 20,000 Metres for Gold in Kazakhstan’s Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone

    General Base Minerals LLP is planning geological exploration across an 11 square kilometre licence area in Abai Region of Kazakhstan, within the boundaries of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone — a designated area established on the former Soviet nuclear test site to facilitate gradual remediation and the return of contaminated land to productive use.

    The exploration area is located approximately 50 kilometres from the village of Sarzhal. The company received its geological exploration licence in February 2026 and plans to begin fieldwork this year, with the full project to be completed by 2031.

    The programme is designed to confirm the presence of gold mineralisation across five blocks of the Shan area, which forms part of the Boko-Vasilyevskoye gold ore field. Resources will be estimated across three standard categories: Inferred, Indicated and Measured. Planned drilling exceeds 20,000 linear metres, complemented by geophysical and geochemical surveys, mapping boreholes and surface excavation works including more than 20 trenches totalling 6,000 linear metres.

    The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Safety Zone, established on the site of the former Soviet nuclear weapons test polygon where more than 450 nuclear tests were conducted between 1949 and 1989, has been progressively opened to regulated economic activity including mining exploration as remediation work advances.

  • Rasta Resources to Begin Gold-Silver Exploration Across Six Licence Areas in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Region

    Rasta Resources to Begin Gold-Silver Exploration Across Six Licence Areas in Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Region

    Rasta Resources has announced plans to conduct geological exploration for gold and silver across six licence areas in the Aktogay District of Karaganda Region, with work scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2026 and conclude in the fourth quarter of 2031.

    The company received its exploration licence on 4 October 2025. The total licensed area covers 12 square kilometres, with the nearest inhabited settlement — the village of Koshkar — located more than 14 kilometres to the southeast. The exploration programme includes 21.4 linear kilometres of geological survey routes, topographic work across 1.69 square kilometres, and geophysical electrical survey work over two square kilometres. Mining works will involve the excavation of 2,000 cubic metres of trenches and the drilling of 30 exploration boreholes totalling 3,000 linear metres. Some 5,000 samples will be collected for gold analysis and other laboratory work, with the programme concluding in a geological report and reserve calculation under C1 and C2 categories.

    Rasta Resources is registered in Almaty and is owned by AIFC-registered private company SD Resources Group Ltd and Almas Rakhymbayev. SD Resources Group is co-owned by Danagul Adamyshina and Suzanna Toktabayeva. Public registry data shows that Adamyshina is listed as director of at least seven companies registered at the same Almaty address, including White Peak, Metanor Resources, Noctung Resources, Quantum Minerals, Altynkol Resources and Terrasouth Resources.

    The ownership structure carries notable background. Ten years ago, Adamyshina headed the subsoil use analysis and development department at Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Investment and Development — the predecessor to the current Ministry of Industry and Construction — and was actively involved in drafting the future Subsoil Code. Her co-owner Suzanna Toktabayeva shares a surname with Timur Toktabayev, who served as director of the subsoil use department and later as deputy minister at the same ministry before being convicted in 2023 and sentenced to seven years in prison. The director of OTSD Group Ltd, another company in the network, is listed as Olzhas Toktabayev.

  • Kazakhstan Junior Miner Aurora Minerals Battles Illegal Prospectors at Gold Project While Targeting Nine-Million-Tonne Copper Basin

    Kazakhstan Junior Miner Aurora Minerals Battles Illegal Prospectors at Gold Project While Targeting Nine-Million-Tonne Copper Basin

    Kazakhstani geological exploration company Aurora Minerals has disclosed that illegal artisanal miners are actively extracting gold from its Altyn project in northern Pribalkhashe — a problem the company’s chief geologist Ulan Nurkhannuly colourfully framed as “pirates” operating within their licence area, in a presentation at the Geoscience and Exploration Central Asia forum in Astana.

    Nurkhannuly told the forum’s session on junior company challenges that the Altyn project sits on the boundary of a gold ore field, making it geologically prospective for new discoveries. The project currently covers 80 square kilometres, though Aurora Minerals has identified scope to expand the licence area to between 355 and 360 square kilometres, with the application process already underway. The company has named its priority exploration targets within the project El Dorado, Captain Morgan and Port Royal — a nod, Nurkhannuly explained, to the pirate theme necessitated by the uninvited activity on site. Illegal miners are reportedly extracting both hard rock and alluvial gold at three separate locations within the licence area, effectively running their own informal junior mining operation. They have even installed a water extraction borehole — infrastructure that may prove useful to Aurora given existing water supply challenges in the region.

    A sample taken by Aurora’s team at one of the illegal mining sites returned an exceptional grade of 500 grams of gold per tonne. Historic data generated in the 1980s suggests the broader project area may contain approximately 360,000 ounces, or over 11 tonnes of gold. Further study has identified additional zones warranting exploration.

    Beyond Altyn, Aurora Minerals is pursuing what could prove to be a significantly larger opportunity at its Teniz project, located on the tripoint border of Akmola, Kostanai and Karaganda regions. The company believes the area represents an extension of the Chu-Sarysu sedimentary basin — a geological setting comparable to the giant Zhezkazgan copper deposit. Surface copper showings are sparse, consistent with that analogy. The United States Geological Survey has forecast that the Teniz basin could host up to nine copper deposits with combined resources of as much as nine million tonnes of copper. On the basis of historical data and the US geological forecast, Aurora has identified priority targets across the region and secured licences covering up to 2,000 square kilometres, with the potential to add three further licences and expand the surveyed area to 4,500 square kilometres. Licensing negotiations with state authorities took considerable time due to the presence of a Russian rocket impact zone within the Teniz depression.