Kazakhstan Scours Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan for Metal Ore to Rescue Struggling Metallurgy Sector

Kazakhstan’s government has moved decisively to shore up its flagship metallurgical industry, ordering domestic smelters to run at full capacity while locking in new mineral supply lines stretching east to Kyrgyzstan and south across Afghanistan, official cabinet minutes reveal.

Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov issued binding instructions this week mandating 100% utilisation of all national metal processing facilities, a direct response to a sharp slowdown that saw metallurgical output fall 2.7% year-on-year across the first six months of 2026. The slump stems from two long-building structural flaws: ageing domestic mines yielding dwindling high-grade ore, and disrupted concentrate shipments historically sourced from Russian suppliers.

Yersain Nagaspaev, Minister of Industry and Construction, laid out the dual import strategy to cabinet colleagues on Monday. Neighbouring Kyrgyzstan will become a steady source of copper, lead and zinc raw ore, its untapped multi-metal deposits sitting within cheap overland haulage distance of eastern Kazakh smelting hubs. Border customs procedures are to be streamlined and transit tariffs reduced to cut transport overheads for Kazakh industrial groups including Kazzinc and Eurasian Resources Group (ERG).

The more commercially striking pivot targets Afghanistan’s largely unexploited mineral belt. A landmark $18.88 million supply contract has been sealed between domestic producer Shalkiya Zinc and an Afghan mining firm, guaranteeing annual deliveries of 30,000 tonnes of zinc ore for Kazzinc’s core refineries. ERG is separately advancing talks to secure chromium and beryllium shipments from Afghan deposits, critical feedstocks absent from Kazakhstan’s depleting native reserves. Deliveries will travel via the CASA regional transit highway and Herat border crossings, opening a viable Central Asia–South Asia mineral corridor long overlooked by Western commodity traders.

For Astana, the policy is far more than a short-term fix for idle furnaces. Decades of underinvestment in geological exploration have left Kazakhstan’s existing copper, zinc and lead mines facing steep reserve depletion; key Zhezkazgan copper operations have only 10 to 12 years of viable extraction left. Importing cheaper cross-border ore unlocks the country’s greatest competitive advantage: mature, large-scale refining infrastructure capable of transforming raw minerals into high-value semi-finished metals.

State planners aim to break Kazakhstan’s historic reliance on exporting unprocessed ore, building an integrated industrial chain covering mining, concentration, smelting and advanced alloy manufacturing. Sustained metal production will stabilise export revenues, safeguard tens of thousands of industrial jobs and position the republic as Central Asia’s definitive metallurgical processing hub amid tightening global supplies of battery-grade copper and zinc.

Industry analysts based in Almaty cautioned that the new supply routes carry clear geopolitical and operational risks. Afghan mineral logistics remain vulnerable to local instability, while Kyrgyz domestic demand for its own mineral resources could limit export volumes in the medium term. The government has paired its import push with increased state funding for domestic mineral surveys, seeking to ease long-term reliance on foreign ore within the next decade.

From a wider European vantage, the reshaped Central Asian metals trade map signals accelerating regional economic integration independent of Moscow’s traditional resource networks. As Western manufacturers hunt diversified critical mineral suppliers away from single-source markets, Kazakhstan’s bid to ramp up refined metal output could position it as an underrated alternative link in Eurasian industrial supply chains.

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