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Kazakstan
Natural Resources
Soviet geologists once boasted that Kazakstan was capable of
exporting the entire Periodic Table of Elements. During the Soviet
period, Kazakstan supplied about 7 percent of the union's gold,
or about twenty-four tons per year. Since independence, the republic
has attracted large foreign partners to develop existing or new
mines. President Nazarbayev announced intentions to increase annual
gold production to fifty or sixty tons by 1995 or 1996.
In 1989 the mines of Kazakstan yielded 23.8 million tons of
iron ore and 151,900 tons of manganese. The republic also possesses
deposits of uranium, chrome, titanium, nickel, wolfram, silver,
molybdenum, bauxite, and copper. Major phosphate mines feed fertilizer
plants in the southern city of Zhambyl. Three major coal fields--Torghay,
Qaraghandy, and Ekibastuz--produced 140 million tons of hard coal
in 1991, but by 1994 Kazakstan's national total had dropped to
104 million tons.
In the mid-1990s, all minerals in Kazakstan belonged to the
republic. Authority for decisions concerning their development
was delegated to the prime minister, provided that these decisions
were consistent with laws on natural resource development. The
fundamental law "On Natural Resources and the Development of Mineral
Resources" was passed in May 1992, but its treatment of foreign
development of minerals is limited to two brief paragraphs stipulating
that foreign development be conducted in accordance with international
and national law.
Data as of March 1996
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