Kazakhstan’s president launched Aktogay smelter work on October 20
The $1.8 billion copper project entered preparatory work under a roughly $10 million agreement; the full construction contract remains unsigned.
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The $1.8 billion copper project entered preparatory work under a roughly $10 million agreement; the full construction contract remains unsigned.
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev formally launched construction of the Aktogay copper smelter in Abai region by videoconference on October 20, 2026. Chinese partner China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group (CNMC) described the same ceremony as the start of preparatory work.
The full construction contract remains unsigned, Eurasianet said on October 27, citing an NFC disclosure dated October 21. That disclosure limits the signed agreement to preparatory work and says a construction contract is not certain to follow.
Kazakh mining company KAZ Minerals is developing the project. China’s NFC, an engineering and construction subsidiary of CNMC, is its engineering partner. The launch follows a general agreement signed on June 3, 2024, by NFC, its controlled Kazakhstan subsidiary and the project owner.
| Scope | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Entire smelter project | Approximately $1.8 billion | Total planned investment stated by Kazakhstan’s presidential office |
| Preparatory work | Up to 4,521,200,000 tenge, excluding VAT—roughly $10 million |
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The preparatory agreement was signed on October 19, 2026, by NFC Kazakhstan LLP, NFC’s controlled subsidiary, and the owner, Kazakhstan Mining and Metallurgical LLP. These are English translations of their names in the Chinese disclosure.
The agreement authorizes mobilization, surveys, site preparation and the start of basic design. It also covers temporary facilities, including a camp, utilities, fencing and site security.
If a construction contract is signed, the preparatory advance will count toward its price. If no construction contract is signed and the preparatory agreement ends, NFC Kazakhstan may retain only documented actual costs within the cap and must refund the balance.
The owner may terminate the preparatory agreement at any time. If the construction contract is not signed by the planned date, the owner may modify, suspend, extend or terminate the preparatory agreement. It contains no specific liability provisions for delays to the overall project or failure to reach production capacity and standards.
Kazakhstan’s presidential office projects annual capacity of 300,000 tons of copper cathodes, a form of refined copper, with first production scheduled for 2030. It also projects more than 1,000 new jobs and production of gold, silver and sulfuric acid.
The office says the smelter would process the project’s own copper concentrate—the material produced after processing ore—into finished metal. That would complete a chain from mining to finished metal and increase the value added within Kazakhstan. Tokayev says the planned copper capacity would fully meet domestic demand.
CNMC Chairman Wen Gang met Tokayev separately and promised to complete construction on schedule and expand cooperation in workforce training.
NFC says its Kazakhstan subsidiary and the owner will negotiate in good faith toward a construction contract, but signing remains uncertain. NFC has not specified a signing deadline or intermediate milestones before the 2030 production target. If signed, the construction contract would replace the preparatory agreement.
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