Kazakhstan Wants to Create National Geological Agency

In his address to the nation, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has suggested creating a new national geological agency that might absorb a bunch of different organizations involved in the industry.

While speaking to the nation, Tokayev highlighted the issue of access to natural resources. Kazakhstani producers must have unlimited access to these resources, according to the president.

«The government has to find a solution for this important task and do so by the end of the year. Also, we all know that many natural resources in Kazakhstan remain undiscovered and the level of geological exploration of our soil is still very low. Therefore, we have to provide investors with broad access to this high-quality geological data. To archive this goal, the national geological agency is needed,» the president stated.

However, the organization shouldn’t act as a monopoly, which decides who gets access to the resources.

«The agency could be helping investors with service support because the mining industry needs a new momentum, especially in the area of full-scale geological exploration. We need to bring all the reforms to a logical end, create an open digital base for geological data, and grant access to this database to investors. Kazakhstan’s mineral resources are our national assets. Therefore all discussions concerning the access to them must be public and transparent,» he said.

In pursuing a new national project Kazakhstan is ready to increase funding for geological exploration fourfold. So far, the final version of the project has a budget of $388 million which is 7% higher than the original $361 million allocated for the project before. All that money should be spent by portion ($77.5 million a year) over five years.