CANADIAN & KAZAKH MINING LEADERS DISCUSS OF CONTINUED GROWTH OF BILATERAL INVESTMENT
THE 14TH ANNUAL ASTANA MINING & METALLURGY CONGRESS, LEADING CANADIAN MINING, METALS AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANIES GATHERED TOGETHER WITH THEIR KAZAKH COUNTERPARTS FOR A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON DEEPENING COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES’ RAW MATERIALS SECTORS AND SHARING STRATEGIES TO DOMESTICATE A LARGER SHARE OF DOWNSTREAM VALUE-ADDED ECONOMIC ACTIVITY FROM THEIR RESOURCE INDUSTRIES.
The Canadian delegation; including Hatch, Barrick Gold, Memorial University, and B2Gold Corp, expressed the growing interest among Canadian and Western developers in expanding their presence within Kazakhstan, attracted by high-quality reserves and a well-governed business environment. Delegates expressed their intentions during personal meetings with the Minister of Industry and Construction, K. Sharlapaev.
Speakers expressed their administration for the sustained progress on adoption of international mining standards, but recognised that Kazakhstan cannot rest on its laurels, with Garth Kirkham, Chairperson of the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards (CRIRSCO), noting that, “maintaining standards is vital. If you lose trust, it can take a generation to regain confidence.”
The Kazakh delegation, led by Bakhyt Chirchikbayev, CEO of the Tau-Ken Samruk (TKS) national mining company, welcomed the growing enthusiasm and stressed Kazakhstan’s eagerness for new partnerships to unlock the country’s wealth of critical raw materials, to improve sustainability, and help fuel the global climate transition.
Adoption of innovation was a recurring theme throughout the roundtable, with Alain Thivierge of the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) from Sudbury, Ontario remarking that, “improvements in productivity is how you transform an non-economical project into an economical one.” Notably, earlier at the Congress MICA announced they had reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Almaty -based Tech Garden "Park of Innovative Technologies" to further support bilateral partnerships in mining innovations.
The roundtable discussion focused heavily on skills development, with recognition of the high caliber of local talent replacing the need for expat professionals that is common in many mining jurisdictions. The strong availability of skilled trades is a testament to decades-long history of local metallurgical industries and more recently to the international collaborations secured by Kazakh universities, such as the strategic partnership between Nazarbayev University; School of Mining and Geosciences and the Colorado School of Mines.
James Banyard of First Quantum Minerals (FQM) noted that not only are their company's in-country operations staffed almost exclusively by local workers, but they have been successful in hiring Kazakh graduates for their international sites as well. The roundtable concluded in agreement on the need for further investment in mining and metallurgical skills for the next generation of workers to meet the world’s rapidly growing demand for critical minerals in the climate transition.
A representative business mission from Canada for participation in the AMM Congress has been organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Canada for the second year in a row, steadily increasing Canadian business interest in Kazakhstan
