New Deposit of Rare Earth Elements Discovered in Karaganda Region

Jerusalem, 3 April, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- (Kazinform) – Karaganda geologists have discovered a deposit of rare earth elements, Kazinform reports with reference to the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

During exploration work at the Kuyrektykol site as part of the state program for geological exploration of the subsoil in the period 2022–2024, Tsentrgeolsemka LLC identified several promising areas with large resources of rare earth metals, which together amount to about a million tons.

The Kuyrektykol site is located 300 km southeast of Astana in the Karkaraly district of the Karaganda region, 100 km northeast of Karkaraly.

Geologically, the ore-bearing rocks of the Kuyrektykol site represent an ancient volcanic structure composed of extinct volcanoes and the products of their activity, which were subsequently altered by later magmatic processes.

In terms of mineralization scale, the most promising areas are Irgiz and Dos 2, where the content of total rare earth elements exceeds 0.1%, reaching 0.25% and higher in individual samples.

A preliminary calculation of the reserves of the allocated block in the Irgiz area, carried out based on the results of core testing and quantitative determination of rare earth elements, showed the presence of metals of about 800 thousand tons, with an average content of over 0.1%. Moreover, the wells did not come out of the ore.

Due to the limited scope of analytical studies of rare earth elements in the project, anticipating the significance of this object, the management of Tsentrgeolsemka LLC decided to perform a significant part of the quantitative determinations of rare earth elements at its own expense, which made it possible to preliminarily estimate the reserves.

After analyzing all available historical materials on the area and data from exploration work, a very large forecast area of ​​Zhana Kazakhstan was additionally identified and preliminarily assessed. It was named in honor of the new stage of the country’s development and is a continuation of the identified ore-bearing strata to the south and west. The Zhana Kazakhstan area includes almost the entire Kuyrektykol area and is very promising in terms of all geological prerequisites.

The total predicted rare earth metal resources of the Zhana Kazakhstan area to a depth of 300 meters amount to over 20.0 million tons, with an average content of rare earth elements of about 700 g/t.

There are no analogues of this type of rare earth mineralization in Kazakhstan, which allows us to classify it as a new industrial type.

The identified rare earth deposits and promising areas, if further confirmed, may in the future bring Kazakhstan to a leading position in the world in terms of rare earth element reserves, which will allow for the rapid development of the high-tech rare earth metals industry.

Successful development of ore enrichment technology and extraction of valuable components will influence the increase of investment attractiveness and economic development of the region.

Thirty-eight promising areas of solid minerals have been identified in Kazakhstan.