Wednesday, July 04, 2012 -
Kazakhstan will double production of gold mining and refining, the country’s deputy prime minister Serik Akhmatov said on Tuesday at a congress devoted to the industry in the Kazakh capital Astana.
Akhmatov was speaking at the start of the Third International Mining and Metallurgical Congress, which kicked off in Astana with participation of 60 firms from seven countries. The conference will close on Friday.
This year’s event, entitled ‘Astana Mining & Metallurgy’ (AMM-2012), should draw around 1,200 participants from 23 countries, according to a Kazakh government media report.
They will rub shoulders with more than 1,500 Kazakh representatives of the local mining industry during the two-day affair, said the Kazakh Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MINT).
Kazakhstan is building a gold refinery with state-of-the-art German technologies to process 25 tons of gold and 50 tons of silver per year.
The Kazakh central bank has said it will buy all gold produced in Kazakhstan until 2015, in an effort to bolster the country's savings and prevent escalating inflation.
Kazakhstan’s deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Albert Rau told participants the new processing plant will allow the country to stop sending gold abroad for refining, the KyrTAG news agency reported.
The ministry said that more than 20 speakers from Kazakhstan, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Russia, and Turkey will deliver speech at the Congress.
The show is mainly organized by MINT.