Metals-rich Kazakhstan seeks niche in battery supply chain
(This Sept. 13 has been corrected to fix the minister’s surname throughout, to Sharlapaev from Sharlapayev)
Kazakhstan aims to boost output of metals needed for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and is issuing hundreds of new exploration licences to attract fresh investment in the sector, the country’s industry minister told Reuters.
The former Soviet republic promotes itself as a dependable supplier of the majority of critical materials outlined by the European Union, at a time when Russia has threatened to curb exports and China is tightening control over rare earths.
Kazakhstan has signed deals with the European Union and Britain on the supply of critical minerals.industry minister Kanat Sharlapaev said in an interview this week.
People know that Kazakhstan is very reliable… We’ve been supplying markets for a very long time,
The Central Asian nation, the world’s ninth-largest by land area but sparsely populated, has deposits of 90% of the elements of the periodic table and is already a significant exporter of ferroalloys, gold, and copper.
Sharlapaev, said.
The country wants to gain market share in battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and graphite amid rising demand for the materials,
Kazakhstan already mines manganese, but last year it launched processing of manganese sulphate and aims to eventually capture 10% of the global market for the battery material.
It also supplies phosphates for fertilisers and aims to process material needed for LFP (lithium ferro phosphate) batteries that are growing in popularity, he added.
Sharlapaev, a former banker with Citigroup, said:
Building scalable processing of battery grade metals is something we want to expand
“We already have production facilities, it’s just a matter of expanding the range of those materials.”
RUSSIAN THREAT
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that Moscow should consider limiting exports of uranium, titanium, nickel, and potentially other commodities in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Kazakhstan is a major global supplier of both uranium and titanium. It also holds 2% of world nickel reserves, but has, for now, a negligible share in its global output.
The country has also yet to tap its deposits of lithium, another key metal, but exploration is underway.
he said,
To speed up exploration and development, the cabinet streamlined the procedures for exploration licences and moved them online,
This has hiked the number of issued licences so far this year to 487 compared to 397 for all of 2023, according to data from the ministry.
READ the latest Batteries News shaping the battery market
Metals-rich Kazakhstan seeks niche in battery supply chain, source
