Kazakhstan is a significant player in the mining industry. However, despite its ambitious commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the share of renewables in its energy supply, achieving these goals is challenging due to the country’s reliance on large reserves of domestically available and cheap coal. 

The focus is minimising the over-dependence on conventional fossil fuels and moving towards renewable energy solutions. But this is where things get complicated; the move to renewable sources would require consistent mining of rare minerals.

Rising Renewable Energy Demand

According to a report by the World Bank on Minerals for Climate Change Action, minerals production like cobalt, lithium, and graphite can increase by as high as 500% by the end of 2050. In fact, this would be “the” requirement to meet to keep up with the rising demand for renewable energy solutions.

It means decreasing mines’ carbon footprint should be one of the priorities to pave the way for industrial innovation and infrastructure and ensure responsible production and consumption. A PwC report highlights that there are many drivers in the mining sectors and climate change initiatives that might make it difficult for Kazakhstan to achieve environmental sustainability in the next decade.

What are Kazakhstan’s Plans?

When you evaluate the 2022 Energy Sector Review of Kazakhstan, it becomes clear that the country ranks top in uranium mining on a global scale. In fact, Kazakhstan is also involved in the various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle. Besides, Kazakhstan’s federal government publicly talks about building a robust commercial-centric nuclear plant.

As the mining owners consistently face draughts, heavy precipitation, and heatwaves, it becomes more difficult to operate. Increasing water scarcity continues to propel companies to halt or terminate some pit operations altogether.

The Quest to Reduce Energy Consumption

Kazakhstan, an ex-Soviet Union state, understands that reducing energy consumption will allow the country to speed up the transition to renewable energy solutions. As of now, Kazakhstan has over 140 renewable energy dedicated facilities that generate around 2,300 megawatts. This makes up only 4% of the total power production in the country.

Simultaneously, the country wants to reduce coal usage by 40% to meet COP26 goals. Kazakhstan has set in motion a strategic initiative to achieve carbon neutrality. It is vital to understand that Kazakhstan has massive unused copper deposits that can accelerate the country’s transition to renewable energy technologies.

Now, to achieve COP26 initiatives, Kazakhstan’s mining industry is facing more demand from investors, consumers, and the government to reduce missions and maintain a diversified energy portfolio. For decarbonizing, the country’s mining industry will need to achieve material efficiency, emission efficiency, and energy efficiency. 

On the bright side, by 2025, Kazakhstan intends to launch 48 additional renewable energy facilities to cover more ground in energy production that stems from renewable energy sources. Kazakhstan is at the forefront to achieve carbon neutrality in the next five decades and focus on renewable energy solutions to cover 50% of the energy production by 2050.

Material Efficiency

One of the issues to extract metal ores is to determine the right recovery ratio. Besides, mining involves dealing with a high volume of waste, which leads to more difficulties. Silver and gold are also wasteful metals with 99% extracted ore as waste.

What’s the solution?

Increase ore material’s efficiency and invest more in research and development. Part of the solution is to understand and implement new tech solutions to create more opportunities and control mining waste in an eco-friendly manner. For instance, it is crucial to address water contamination issues, like increasing pH levels in the soil and reducing metal acidity.

Emissions Efficiency

The country needs to move towards open pit mining to less GHG emissions and reduce operational costs. On the downside, open pit mining only makes sense when ore deposits are present in tandem with the surface.

Kazakhstan’s coal industry represents 50% of the mining production and needs to mitigate some operations to pave the way for decarbonization. For instance, the country can use hydrogen and biomass over coal.

Energy Efficiency

Whether it’s an excavation or mineral processing, It is no secret that mining operations take a lot of power. But the country can supply these energy needs through renewable sources. In fact, Kazakhstan can use energy-efficient machinery and other advanced tech solutions to save a significant volume of energy.

But mining sites are often extremely remote and it can be difficult to supply renewable energy onsite. To achieve energy efficiency, Kazakhstan needs to have the political and social will to make a long-term climate impact.

Mining enterprises have a great opportunity to use rising renewable energy demand to improve systems’ safety, build resilience, mitigate risks, and reduce overall costs. Many companies in Kazakhstan still haven’t realized the significance of green energy and how mining industry stakeholders can use them for mining pits.

Perspective: Challenges to Decarbonize Kazakhstan’s Mining Industry to Climate Sustainability Goals

Since Kazakhstan contributes significant CO2 emissions, the best course of action for the mining sector would be to adopt and embrace energy-efficient standards and practices. The mining landscape of Kazakhstan needs a new revolution.

The truth is that decarbonizing Kazakhstan’s mining industry is bound to positively impact other sectors. For starters, it would render positive effects on the construction and transportation industry, which heavily depends on materials that are produced by the country’s mining sector.

Once decarbonization kicks off in the mining industry, Kazakhstan would be able to reduce its overall carbon footprint and promote environmental sustainability and development. Decarbonization may also improve the competitiveness drive of the country’s mining sector.

The need of the hour for Kazakhstan is to implement sustainable mining standards to cut back on carbon emissions and garner the attention of investors that cannot compromise on environmental sustainability. In time, Kazakhstan has a solid opportunity to make its mining sector more profitable and resilient.

In retrospect, it will take consistent collaborative efforts between mining companies, financial institutions, and the federal government to ensure Kazakhstan leaves a small carbon footprint in the mining sector and supports sustainable development to achieve the world’s climate action goals.