Posts Tagged investment
Investment Opportunities in Kazakhstan – Central Asia’s Boom Economy
Posted by alibabarika in Articles on July 22, 2010
Thinking about new investment destinations in Asia? What about the Republic of Kazakhstan?
Kazakhstan, located between the borders of Russia and China in Central Asia, is size of the whole of Western Europe and four times the size of Texas.
It currently has double the oil reserves of the the North Sea with over 35 billion barrels and by 2015 the current projections are for oil reserves of more than 100 billion barrels. For any economy this is a pretty good situation considering the oil price has been hovering at US$135 a barrel and will probably go higher. Besides oil, it has the world’s largest reserves of barite, lead, tungsten, and uranium; second largest reserves of chromite, silver, and zinc; third largest of manganese, significant deposits of copper, gold, and iron ore. Rich in natural resources, Kazakhstan has become a popular destination for the oil and mining industry since it emerged from independence from the Soviet Union.
Investing in Kazakhstan’s Uranium
Posted by alibabarika in Articles on July 22, 2010
StockInterview: What makes you respect the Kazakhs with regards to ISL mining in their country?
Fletcher Newton: First of all, they have a tremendous amount of experience with this. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been doing ISL mining of uranium longer than anybody in the world. The Kazakhs, in particular KazAtomProm, have over the last 30 years, maybe more, developed an incredible amount of expertise in how to recover uranium effectively, inexpensively. They are extremely environmentally sensitive. Kazakhstan, to my knowledge, has had none of the environmental issues with ISL recovery of uranium that, for example, we’ve had in this country. They have gone to great lengths to be sensitive to the interests of people in local communities, who are obviously always concerned about groundwater. But, the bottom line is they are extremely competent in their ability to mine uranium. They are among the very best, if not the best.
StockInterview: Why do you call them among the very best?