ERG earmarks $1B for Kazakhstan operations

[Ben Graham]

Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) plans to invest more than $1 billion in its mining and metallurgical assets in Kazakhstan, the largest investment in ERG’s projects in the Central Asian country in the company’s history.

The investment is to focus on the company’s existing operations in Kazakhstan and on the construction of new production plants and future facilities for high value-added products, ERG reported Friday. ERG CEO Shukhrat Ibragimov announced the investment this week during a visit to one of the company’s sites in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan powerhouse

Operations of the private, Luxembourg-headquartered miner in Kazakhstan represent more than one-third of the country’s metals and mining industry. ERG is also major player in Democratic Republic of Congo, where its Metalkol mine is one of the largest producers of cobalt in the world and a big copper producer. The Kazakhstan governments holds a 40% equity stake in ERG.

Projects covered under the investment for this year include the development of a hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant that has a 2 million tonnes-per-year capacity and an iron ore pellet plant and the construction of an 80-megawatt ferroalloy gas utilization power station at the Aktobe ferroalloys plant in the country’s northwest.

Kazakh building tycoons pivot to mining as power shifts

Mine, industrial build out

The investment will also go towards developing a chromium mine with a 7.5 million-tonne-per-year capacity and modernization projects of the Aksu power station. Planned upgrades at the Pavlodar alumina plant include the construction of vertical calcination kilns and product filtration units and the addition of recovery capabilities for the annual production of 15 tons of gallium. 

Gallium and HBI – used in semiconductors and alloys, and in steelmaking, respectively – aren’t yet produced in Kazakhstan.

ERG in 2024 signed a three-year cobalt supply agreement with Electra Battery Materials (TSXV, Nasdaq: ELBM) for its refinery in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario. Starting this year, the Luxembourg company is to provide 3,000 tonnes of cobalt hydroxide annually.

Once it’s fully commissioned, the refinery, expected to be the first of its kind in North America, could produce enough cobalt for up to 1.5 million electric vehicles annually.