Tungsten, gold and cobalt to be explored at a site in Aktobe region

Geoland Minerals plans to explore the Borlinskoye-2 site in the Aktobe region: gold, tungsten, copper and cobalt will be sought there. For now this is only prospecting; whether a deposit exists remains to be determined. The work is scheduled to run until the end of 2032, reports National Business.

The essence in brief

• The Borlinskoye-2 site is located in the Aktobe region, approximately 20 km from the village of Taldyk, and its area is more than 9 km².
• Geological exploration will be carried out by Geoland Minerals, a company registered in Astana in 2025.
• They plan to drill 80 wells with a depth of 200-250 m and analyze up to 1,000 samples.
• The work is to be completed at the end of 2032 with maps and a final report.

What will be sought

The main exploration targets are gold, copper, tungsten and cobalt. The silver content and that of other critical minerals will also be assessed in the quartz veins of the site. A quartz vein is a fissure in rock filled with quartz; ore minerals often concentrate in such veins.

How the exploration will be conducted

Geologists intend to drill 80 wells with a depth of 200-250 m. Up to 1,000 samples with a total weight of about 113 tonnes will be analyzed for gold and 32 other elements. No more than 0.4 ha will be allocated for drilling sites and mine workings.

The result of the exploration will be geological maps and a final report. The work is planned to be completed at the end of 2032.

Who is carrying out the work

Geoland Minerals is an LLP registered in Astana in 2025. The Borlinskoye-2 site is located in the Ayteke Bi district of the Aktobe region. The information about the work was taken from the statement on the planned activity: this is a document that the company submits for public discussion and environmental assessment before the start of work.

What this means for Kazakhstan

For now, Kazakhstan mainly sells tungsten as raw material: in 2025 the country exported tungsten ore and concentrate for the first time, about 3,700 tonnes worth $71 million, all to China. In March 2026, Kazakhstan entered the top three global leaders in tungsten production for the first time: in 2025 the country produced 2,400 tonnes in terms of pure metal, second only to China and Vietnam. The Boguty deposit in the Almaty region, which is operated by the Chinese company Jiaxin International Resources, in the first half of 2026 generated a net profit of $202.4 million on revenue of $345.5 million; the company is so far only designing deep processing (APT production).

The authorities state that they do not plan to export cheap raw materials: the director general of the Center for Trade Policy Development, Nurlan Kulbatyrov, called "primary processing and localization of production in Kazakhstan" a priority. The project of Cove Capital and Tau-Ken Samruk is estimated at approximately $1.1 billion with a capacity of about 12,000 tonnes per year.

Author's conclusion

Borlinskoye-2 is still at the earliest stage: the company is only about to search for ore, and only the results of the work will show whether the site contains reserves suitable for extraction. Gold, copper, tungsten and cobalt are named as exploration targets, not as confirmed reserves.