Kazakhstan and Its Economy
Kazakhstan is having some quality deposits of copper ore in eastern, central and western region. The important deposits are Potemyevskoye, Abyz, Kasmuroui, Akbastu, Nurkazgan, Zezkazganskoye, Orlovskoye,Nikolovskoye,and Aktogay. Major copper projects are Bozshakol copper project, Benkala copper project and Aktogay copper project. Lead and zinc deposits are found in all regions of Kazakhstan. Lead and zinc ores and concentrates are exported to countries like USA, Spain, Germany, Italy and Canada. Lead and zinc deposits are worked in Shaimerden of northern region. Mining is also started in Ridder--Sokolnoye and Maleyivskoye of eastern region. New deposits are found in Solovyor of northern region. Similarly new deposits are also found in Chekmar of eastern region. New deposits are discovered in Bestube of central region. Some deposits are also found in Shalkiya and Talan of southern region. Gold deposits are found in many places in Kazakhstan. More than 30 companies are engaged in the mining and exploration of gold in Kazakhstan. Gold is separated from the placer deposits and gold bearing rocks. Gold is also extracted as the byproduct of copper, silver and zinc. Kazakhstan emerged as a major producer of gold in the world. Gold is exported to countries like Russia, Italy, Switzerland, China and India. More than 15 new gold reserves are found and steps are taken for working of these new gold deposits. The local people are allowed to collect gold from minor placer deposits. Royalty is charged on the basis of amount of gold collected by the people. Cooperatives are formed to collect the gold from the miners and deposited into the government treasury. Important gold deposits are found in Kalti and Altai of the eastern region. Deposits are also found in Kokshetau, Zholymbet, Bestoby, Aksu, Vasilkovskoye and Uzboy in the northern region. Deposits like Dzhungor and Shu are located in the southern region. The deposits like Malkayin and North Balkhash are in the central region. The gold deposits of Zhetygarin and Mugodzhar are located in the western region. A deposit of copper-silver-gold is found in Aktyubinsk of western region of Kazakhstan.
Coal is a major mineral product of Kazakhstan. Coal is found in coking and non-coking form. More than 5 coal bearing basins are discovered in Kazakhstan. The major basins are Karaganda and Ekibastuz. Coal is discovered in 19th century in Kazakhstan. Regular coal mining was started in the year 1930. The estimated coal reserves is around 37.5 billion tons. The annual coal production is around 50 million tons. The coal is of Anthracite and Bituminous coal. Coal produced is used in power plants, steel plants and smelters of copper, lead and zinc. Coal is also used by railway in the past years. Some amount of coal is exported to Russia and Ukraine. Oil and natural gas are discovered in the western Kazakhstan. The oil and gas fields are located in the coastal region of the Caspian Sea. Potash mining is started in the western region. Deposits of rock phosphates, asbestos, limestone, zeolite and vermiculite are also developed for regular mining. Power projects are developed in Kazakhstan for supply of power to steel plants, oilfields, coal mines, iron ore mines and other projects. Power is also supplied to railway, cities, towns and domestic households. The Ekibastuz power plant is important one. A new thermal power plant is started in Korbatun in Atyrayu province in western Kazakhstan. Oil refineries are established near oil fields in the western region. An integrated gas chemical complex is started in Atyrayu province. Steps are taken to expand the Ekibastuz power plant. A phosphate based fertiliser plant is started at Zambyloblast. A power plant is established in Aksu. A ferroalloy plant is started at Aktobe. A black anode plant is established in Pavlodar in the northeastern part of Kazakhstan. A hoop production unit is in progress in Kostanay in northern Kazakhstan
A number of new industrial projects are launched in Kazakhstan. These are asphalt unit in Aktau, Photoelectric plate unit and a car production unit in Ust--Kamenogorsk. Steel industry is the most important industry of Kazakhstan. The 4 million ton annual capacity integrated steel plant is established in Temirtau of Karaganda province in the central region. The plant is developed and managed by Arcelor Mittal group. This steel plant produces hot and cold roll steel. It also produces tin plates, galvanized steel, polymer coated coil, welded pipes, cokes and some other byproducts. Arcelor Mittal has a plant in Aktau for production of tubular products and pipes. These products are used in oil and gas sector, water supply pipe and slurry pipes. The Kazakhstan seamless pipe is established in 2007 to produce steel pipes in Pavlodar. The unit is working successfully. The EVRAZ Caspian Steel Rolling Mill is commissioned at Kostanay in the year 2013. It has a capacity of 450000 tons of rebar production. The Karaganda steel mill was started in the year 1950. The production of pig iron from the blast furnace was started in the year 1960. In the year 1995, the steel unit was privatized and transferred to I spat International. Later it was merged into the Arcelor Mittal