Astana, 5 November, . The Ministry of Industry and Construction will open on 6 November the acceptance of applications for licences to explore solid minerals on 3,922 newly free blocks, the ministry said.
Applications are accepted under article 189-1 of the Code “On Subsoil and Subsoil Use”. They are taken through the Unified Subsoil Use Platform, minerals.e-qazyna.kz, within 15 working days of the opening. By the editors’ calculation, if 6 November counts as the first day, acceptance ends around 26 November.
The ministry did not say in which regions the blocks lie, which minerals are expected there or how applicants will be selected.
What it means: The state is offering thousands of free subsoil plots at once, and applicants have three weeks. How many of these blocks are promising cannot be seen from the report.
Who benefits: Exploration companies and investors looking for ore and other solid minerals: they get a chance to obtain a plot for exploration. The procedure for selecting applicants is not described in the report.
Background: A block is a unit of subsoil division, a plot for which a licence is issued. Exploration is the stage at which a deposit is searched for and assessed; it precedes extraction. “Newly free” blocks are those that have become free again and can be applied for.
