Kazakhstan is exceptionally endowed withpetroleum, and mineral resources. However, sinceindependence, the vast majority of new investment in thesector has been devoted to petroleum, while, new investmentin the mining, and metallurgical sector has not beencommensurate with the country's geological potential,or with the importance of a sector accounting for overthirty percent of total export earnings, ten percent of GDP,and nineteen percent of total industrial employment. Thestudy focuses on the minerals legislation, and regulation asthe corner stone of development of the mining, andmetallurgy sector, governing access by the private sector tomineral rights, highlighting the country's fundamentalproblem, i.e., the confusion of the mining and metallurgy,with the oil/gas sector, pointing that the economics of thetwo sectors are entirely different. It outlines thetendering system for blocks of geologically prospectiveground contemplated in the legislation, while a practiceextensively used in oil/gas industry, is quite uncommon inmining/metallurgy, actually proven an unsuccessful practice.Moreover, mining taxation as applied to mining andmetallurgy is fundamentally unattractive to new investment,and not competitive internationally. In order to fairlyadminister the legislation, public institutions areessential, where the focus should be on funding, logisticalsupport, and training of professionals, thus farinsufficient for long term sustainability. It is recommendedthat government proceed with a responsible program ofdivestiture, such as the reactivation of the "bluechips" program, and include environmental, andinfrastructure considerations.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
