In 2005, its metal mining sector produced bauxite, chromite, copper, iron, lead, manganese, and zinc ores, and its metallurgical sector produced such metals as beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, copper, ferroalloys, lead, magnesium, rhenium, steel, titanium, and zinc.
The country produced significant amounts of other nonferrous and industrial mineral products, such as alumina, arsenic, barite, gold, molybdenum, phosphate rock, and tungsten.
Output from Kazakhstan's mineral and natural resources sector for 2004 accounted for 74.1% of the value of industrial production, of which 43.1% came from the oil and gas condensate extraction.
[2] Kazakhstan faces a number of environmental challenges, including industrial pollution, land degradation and desertification, and contamination from its former role in nuclear weapons development and testing in the Semipalatinsk region.
[3] Significant improvements in the environmental situation of the northern Aral Sea area has been made owing to dam construction and river flow regulation.
Despite being open to foreign investment and even listed on Western stock exchanges, the ownership structure of some major mineral producing enterprises was not entirely transparent.
[1] Kazakhstan exports minerals to Russia, China, the United States, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, South Korea, UAE.
The country ranked second in manganese, nickel, oil, phosphate rock, silver, and zinc, and third in coal, gas, gold, and tin.
[1] Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has been perceived globally as a supplier of mineral commodities, which include oil, nonferrous metals, and uranium.
As a small economy with large fuel and mineral resources, however, Kazakhstan has not been particularly attractive for investment in the manufacturing sector, which makes the country highly vulnerable to fluctuations in commodity prices.
Oriel subsequently was awarded an extension to the Voskhod contract license area to include the Karaagash deposit which has, according to the former Soviet reserve classification system, C2 and P1 classified resources of some 7.8 Mt.
Assuming positive results of a confirmatory drilling program, these resources could extend mining beyond Voskhod's projected 20-year life.
The controlling block of shares in Kazzinc was sold by the state to the private sector, with Glencore International AG of Switzerland becoming the company's main investor.
[1] Kazzinc mined lead-zinc ores from the Maeeyevskoye, the Ridder-Sokol’noye, and the Tishinskoye deposits, and processed lead and zinc at the Ridder and the Ust-Kamenogorsk complexes.
Plans called for beginning mining in 2006 at the Shaimreden deposit in Kustanay oblast, which would enable Kazzinc to produce an additional 60,000 t/yr of zinc (Notarov, 2005).
[1] The large predicted oil resources of the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian shelf will require a significant amount of investment to develop.
The fields discovered by Soviet geologists have been developed too intensely in the last decades, while geological exploration has not yet covered all the promising areas.
Reserves increase in case of some metals (iron, manganese, gold, zinc) due mainly through re-evaluation and additional exploration of the already discovered fields.