Kazakhstan to award 100 licenses for geological survey work

Kazakhstan plans to issue from 50 to 100 licences for geological work, reports akipress.kg referring to OilNews.kz. 

The licences are to be issued beginning in 2015 after a number of subsoil-use laws and acts are amended in the country. The main points of the legislation are aimed at improving the investment climate in the Central Asian nation’s minerals and raw materials sector.

The draft proposal containing the second package of amendments, the Code on Subsoil Use will be presented in 2014-2015.

“Next year will probably will a very active year and we expect to see more international mineral extraction companies come to Kazakhstan”, Deputy Kazakhstan Minister for Investment and Development Erlan Sagadiyev said in London.

Sagadiyev said the new laws would be much simpler than the previous ones regualating the sector.

Kazakhstan is the biggest producer of electricity in the CIS after Russia and is trying to stimulate growth by attracting foreign partners and selling assets.

“Amendments to the Subsoil Use law will be presented in the Kazakhstan government by the end of the year and could be passed by parliament in the first half of 2015”, Sagadiyev said.

“New technologies will open great possibilities for mineral extraction companies who are ready to come and find new fields”, he commented, adding, “The country has not yet drilled below 500 meters”.