Gold reserves in Kazakhstan reached 2.3 thousand tons, oil — 4.3 billion tons

At the international forum "Geoscience & Exploration Central Asia", held on April 2, Vice Minister of Industry and Construction Iran Sharkhan presented updated data on the state of Kazakhstan's mineral resource base. According to him, there are about 10 thousand deposits in the state database today.

Key resource reserves:

• oil — 4.3 billion tons
• natural gas — 3.8 trillion cubic meters
• gold — 2.3 thousand tons
• coal — 33.5 billion tons
• iron ore — 26.7 billion tons

In addition, the country has about 3,700 deposits of common minerals and almost 5,000 groundwater sources.

New discoveries and increased reserves

By the end of 2025, 17 new deposits were placed on the state balance sheet for the first time, including Kok-Zhon, Altyn-Shoko and Samombet.

The increase in reserves amounted to:

• gold — +136 tons

• Silver — +152 tons

• copper — +75 thousand tons

• phosphorites — +1.3 million tons

The growth of investments and the interest of international companies

Special attention was paid to the investment climate. Over the past five years, investments in exploration have increased 2.5 times and reached $1 billion.

Since 2018, the number of subsurface users in the field of exploration has increased to 3,000, and about 3,000 licenses have been issued for the exploration of solid minerals.

The subsoil use reform, implemented according to the model of Western Australia, allowed attracting the largest international companies to the country, including Rio Tinto, Fortescue and Barrick Gold. There is also interest from American investors.

According to the Vice Minister, today almost the entire territory of Kazakhstan is open to private investment, which creates additional opportunities for further growth of the industry.