Kazakhstan: Americans to Search for Lithium and Rare Metals Deposits

The National Geological Service Chair Yerlan Galiev spoke about cooperation with international partners at a Government session, Orda.kz reports.

The National Geological Service has signed 15 cooperation agreements with foreign geological services and large international companies.

As part of cooperation with the US Geological Survey (USGS), an audit of the NGS by an international team of heads of foreign geological services (USA, France, Germany, Finland) is planned for 2025. At the suggestion of the Bureau of Energy Resources of the US Department of State, a trilateral MOU was concluded with NK Tauken-Samruk on cooperation in the field of studying lithium resources in the Aral Sea region and conducting geochemical surveys of rare metals in the Kalba-Narym belt. Financing by the American side, said Yerlan Galiev.

A project is underway with the British Service (BGS), which includes several of their missions in Kazakhstan.

In addition, a project on the Reference Base of Visual Means (a grant from the British government) is planned jointly with BGS.

NGS actively cooperates with European government agencies. Thus, together with BRGM, the French geological service will hold bilateral seminars in 2025 in the field of remote sensing of the earth, geochemistry, predictive mapping, waste post-mining, and others. While in cooperation with GTK (Finland, MOU at PDAC 2024), the emphasis is on strengthening and developing the database and GIS systems. In this area, the Finns are recognized as some of the best world experts, he added.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova