Today, Dauren Abuov, the Acting Director General of Kazgeology JSC and Pini Althaus, the CEO of the American investment company Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC, signed the agreement on the establishment of a joint venture (JV).
The Kazakh-American joint venture will implement a geological exploration project at the Akbulak site in the Kostanay region (35 km southwest of Arkalyk). According to historical geological data, the site contains reserves of rare earth elements.
Kazgeology JSC is the owner of the contract for geological exploration at the Akbulak site. Before the reserves are placed on the balance sheet, the American side will finance the project, then the financing will be distributed in proportion to the shares in the joint venture. As previously reported, Kazgeology JSC will own 25% of the shares in the joint venture, Cove Kaz Capital Group – 75%.
Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC is a member of the international investment group Cove Capital LLC, which has been investing in mining projects from the exploration stage to the construction stage since 2015. Cove Capital has offices in the USA and Australia. In Kazakhstan, the Group also owns KAZ Critical Minerals LLP (through KAZ Resources LLC (USA)).
Kazgeology JSC has more than 30 investment projects in the search for copper, gold, polymetals, iron and chromium with foreign and Kazakhstani partners such as Rio Tinto, Yildirim Holding A.S., Solidcore Resources plc, Kazzinc LLP and Kazakhmys LLP. The company is also implementing a joint project with ALS Limited – geochemical laboratory for core analysis – ALS Kazgeochemistry LLP.
In 2023, 100% of the voting shares of Kazgeology JSC were transferred to the National Mining Company Tau-Ken Samruk.