Deposits in Kazakhstan worth
billions of tenge have been returned to the state ownership, according to the
country’s government. Now the Cabinet of Ministers is revising the contracts
and licenses of subsoil users who violated their terms. As a result, 118
contracts, 245 solid minerals licenses and 27 hydrocarbon raw materials
contracts have already been terminated. Thus, deposits of gold, coal, iron,
copper, hydrocarbons, bauxite, and poly metals have been returned to the state
fund. In the future, they will be put up for public auction for transferring to
new investors, which will provide an additional inflow of capital in subsoil
use. Overall, following this year’s auctions, a signature bonus of 1.5 billion
tenge was paid to Kazakhstan’s budget. Also, new capital investments in hydrocarbon
exploration will exceed 15.7 billion tenge.
“The Kazakh government is now working
on applying penalties to subsoil users who have violated financial obligations.
Thus, almost one billion tenge worth of solid minerals licenses have been
recovered to the state budget. Also, debts in the amount of two billion tenge under
nine hydrocarbon raw materials contracts have been repaid. We will keep working
in this direction,” said Dinara Alimova, spokesperson for the Kazakh Prime
Minister.
