Kazakhstan, Afghanistan plan to establish a technical committee for geological exploration

Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin and the Minister of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan, Shahabuddin Delawar, held a meeting where they discussed the prospects for cooperation in the field of geological exploration and mining. Representatives of domestic companies ERG Exploration and Kazakhmys Barlau also participated in the negotiations, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports, citing prime minister’s press-service.

The territory of Afghanistan has enormous potential in the field of mining, including oil, gas, coal, ore and rare earth metals. On the other hand, Kazakhstan has significant reserves of these resources and has a developed oil, gas and mining industry sector.

The parties agreed to create a technical committee from specialists from both countries to identify joint projects and their implementation. At the initial phase, Afghanistan plans to share maps with Kazakhstan, indicating promising deposits along with the results of relevant research.

It is noted that over the past five years in Kazakhstan there has been an increase in private investment in geological exploration, especially in the exploration of solid minerals (from 33.9 billion tenge in 2018 to 82 billion tenge in 2023), which indicates a growing interest in this sector of the economy.