Results of the Year
Reform of Kazakhstan❜s Geological Sector Shift to an «All-Inclusive» Model as the Key to an Economic Breakthrough
Today, Kazakhstan has a unique resource potential that could drive the country’s economic growth and technological development for decades to come. However, the current model of state governance in geology and subsoil use significantly reduces the efficiency with which natural resources are utilized.
Fragmentation, insufficient coordination, outdated planning approaches, weak business incentives, and limited access to geological information have left a significant share of the mineral resource base underutilized.
Amid global competition for strategic resources, it is clear that Kazakhstan needs a comprehensive reset of its entire geological exploration and subsoil use system. The proposed reform, built on an All-Inclusive model, could become a turning point for the sector, delivering increased investment, large-scale modernization, and a strong position for the country within the emerging global energy and resource architecture.
Why the case for reform is especially urgent today
The global minerals market is undergoing a major transformation. There are several reasons for this:
1. Global “resource pivot”
The world is rapidly shifting to renewable energy, electric vehicles, and a low-carbon industry. This sharply increases demand for energy-transition metals such as copper, lithium, uranium, rare earth elements, nickel, and cobalt. Kazakhstan ranks among the countries with the largest reserves of many of these resources, yet large-scale extraction and value-added processing have not been fully realized.
2. Investment competition among countries
From Canada to Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, governments are actively simplifying conditions for investors, shortening the time needed to bring deposits into production, and creating incentives for geological exploration. Kazakhstan risks falling behind if it keeps the previous bureaucratic model in which, in practice, the path from pre-project preparation and licensing to project launch (assuming all approvals and hearings are completed) can take several years.
3. Analytics and data as a strategic asset
Modern geology is not only drilling and laboratories but also digital models, satellite monitoring, remote sensing, and AI analysis of geodata. The availability and machine-readability of data, including digitized map datasets, largely determine how quickly investors and the state can make decisions. Kazakhstan already holds large volumes of geoinformation, but access is limited, and some data is outdated and needs updating.
Current barriers constraining the sector’s potential
Despite substantial natural resources and interest from international players, Kazakhstan’s subsoil-use system faces long-standing issues.
Key obstacles:
- No single sector coordinator. Functions are split among multiple agencies, leading to duplication and gaps in accountability.
- Slow decision-making. Investors must pass through a complex, multi-stage approvals process.
- Fragmented, non-transparent data. A large share of geological materials remains in paper or unstructured form.
- Insufficient oversight of current subsoil users weakens discipline and accountability.
- Weak regional engagement. Regions are not integrated into strategic exploration planning, even though they bear the social impacts.
- Lack of incentives to prospect new areas and make discoveries. All risk lies with the investor, while benefits accrue only in rare cases of success.
These factors leave potentially attractive tracts undeveloped, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are largely absent from the sector.
“All-inclusive” model: a new philosophy of subsoil use
One of the reform’s key proposals is to introduce a new format for granting subsoil-use rights: an all-inclusive model. It is grounded in a market- and partnership-oriented approach in which the state not only regulates but also helps investors launch projects more quickly and efficiently.
Essence of the model
The state conducts a full set of preparatory activities in advance, before a block is put out to tender or auction. As a result, the investor receives not a “raw territory” but a ready-to-develop asset with validated data.