ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 2. Kazakhstan has discovered mineral resources worth 1.1 trillion tenge (about $2.46 billion) in the vicinity of single-industry towns, said Minister of Industry and Construction Kanat Sharlapaev during a government meeting, Trend reports.
"In order to attract additional investment in the development of single-industry towns, a number of works are being carried out in the field of geology. Based on the results of a state geological study conducted from 2020 through 2022, resources with an estimated value of 1.1 trillion tenge were discovered in the vicinity of single-industry towns," he said.
According to him, private investments in the amount of 28.7 billion tenge (about $64.1 million) were attracted for the exploration of these territories.
"This year we plan to complete prospecting work in five promising areas near the cities of Abay, Kurchatov, Balkhash and Altai, which began in 2022," he said.
Today, a meeting of the government of Kazakhstan was held, where issues of the development of single-industry towns were discussed.
Kazakhstan currently has 20 single-industry towns, home to over 1.3 million residents. Today, there are 23 city-forming enterprises in oil and gas, coal, iron ore, etc. in single-industry towns. At the end of last year, the volume of industrial production in single-industry towns amounted to 18.5 trillion tenge (about $41 billion). The number of operating SMEs in single-industry towns increased over the year from 92,300 to 100,200.