Extraction of non-ferrous metal ores in Kazakhstan in January alone reaches 107 billion tenge

In January 2019, the output of non-ferrous metals reached 107 billion tenge, with an increase of 25.2% over the same period last year. This is the maximum rate in recent years. In 2018, production amounted to 85.5 billion tenge, with an annual growth of 33.2%.

In 2018, copper ore production amounted to 103.2 million tonnes, which is 8.2% more than in the same period in the previous year; copper concentrates to 12.9 million tonnes, plus 15.7% on-year; copper-zinc ores to 4.8 million tonnes, minus 4.2% on-year; copper in copper concentrate to 580.6 thousand tonnes, plus 15.5% on-year.

The main consumers of Kazakhstan copper are the countries of Asia and the CIS. In 2018, the total exports of refined copper and raw copper alloys amounted to $2.4 billion. The largest share in terms of exports falls in China at 55.4%. On the second place is the UAE at 16.1%, the United Kingdom closes the top three at 15.4%.

Copper scrap and scrap exports amounted to $58.4 million. Here, the main importers are Russia at 98.2% and Belarus at 1.8%.

Copper wire supplies to foreign markets reached $1.1 million. The only importer is Russia.

One of the companies focused on the extraction and processing of copper in the country is KAZ Minerals. In 2018, it's copper production reached 294.7 thousand tonnes, which is 14% more than a year earlier. Sales revenue reached $2.2 billion, 30% more year-to-year due to an increase in production due to the high performance of Aktogai combine.

In 2018, the company's net income reached $510 million, an increase of 14.1% against 2017. However, at the end of January 2019, the KAZ Minerals share price at KASE decreased by 26.4% year-to-year. On February 22, 2019, after the publication of financial results for the last year, the company's shares fell by 1.2% in a day, to 3,226 tenge. At the end of February 2019, the share price rose by 6.9% compared with the beginning of the month.

An important event for the industry in 2018 was an agreement to invest in the Koksai project of KAZ Minerals from the Chinese company NFC in the amount of $70 million. As a result, NFC will receive a share of 19.4% in the project.

In general, for the first 9 months of 2018, the volume of foreign direct investment in the extraction of metal ores in the country amounted to $368.2 million with an increase of 95.4% on-year.

China invested $1.2 billion in the economy of Kazakhstan for the same period with an increase of 40.6% on-year.

Source