INTERVIEW: Kazakhstan tin mining could start this decade, Solidcore CEO says

Solidсore Resources will bring its Syrymbet tin-polymetallic deposit in the North Kazakhstan region to production in the first half of 2029, if the gold mining company makes a positive investment decision on the project due in September.

Syrymbet is estimated to contain 375,050 mt of tin in the Mineral Resource category and is in an easily accessible, infrastructure-rich region. The deposit is poised to become the first enterprise in the country to mine tin.

Solidcore Resources will complete the feasibility study for the project in May-June, and in September its executive board should make a final investment decision, the company CEO, Vetaly Nesis, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, in an interview.

Price has doubled since 2024

"Given the dynamics of tin prices, I have very little doubt that the decision will be positive," he said.

LME three-month tin price closed at $51,955/mt at the end of January. The price has come off its record high of $56,816/mt achieved Jan. 23 but remains twice as high as it had been at the same point two years ago.

The tin market has been in a prolonged deficit due to supply disruptions in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, over the past two years, the price has been increasingly driven by factors other than core fundamentals, the International Tin Association said in a note Jan. 15, pointing to investor activity and a broader uplift in the base metals complex amid heightened global tensions and a weakening US dollar.

The Syrymbet mining site's product -- the concentrate -- will be shipped to China, at least initially.

"China, as the largest producer of refined tin, is the largest buyer of tin concentrates, but the final metal is consumed worldwide," Nesis said.

In 2025, China imported 135,758 mt of tin concentrate, while the most significant unwrought tin imports were reported by the US and the EU, taking over 33,000 mt and 32,000 mt each, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence's Global Trade Analytics Suite showed. China and Japan imported 21,200 mt and 23,200 mt, respectively, and South Korea and India -- over 14,000 mt and 13,000 mt each.

Having analyzed the tin market 10 years out, management sees long-term prospects favoring Syrymbet.

"We estimate demand as moderately positive," Nesis said. "Tin use in traditional applications -- the canned food and beverage industry -- has been stagnating until recently, but with geopolitical tensions, unfortunately, with the growth of hostilities, it looks set to grow again."

Demand for tin from the new economy -- data centers and modern energy infrastructure, including batteries and renewable energy technologies -- is growing too, as tin is indispensable in sensors, semiconductors and electronic components, in general, where it is used in soldering.

Also, supply is set to stagnate, as the major sources of global tin production -- mines in southern China, Myanmar, and Thailand -- are depleting, and new hard-rock tin deposits are few and are in problematic regions, Nesis said.

Solidcore has a 55% stake in Syrymbet. The rest belongs to the Kazakh holding company Lancaster Group. The government does not have equity in the project, but its Investment Promotion Council helps navigate any bureaucratic bottlenecks, so the permitting process is proceeding normally.

Very fine particles

Solidcore is completing work on the flowsheet, which was a riddle. Syrymbet is among the world's top three tin deposits, but extracting the metal poses a challenge because the particles are very fine.

To reduce the project's engineering complexity, risks and costs, Solidcore has engaged minerals processing technology leaders — FLS, Sepro Mineral Systems and BGRIMM.

Syrymbet is the company's only project outside of gold that is nearing groundwork. Solidcore will soon start building external infrastructure, including a water conduit and treatment facilities, and workforce accommodations, within the agreed pre-investment expenditure of $30 million.

The company is also interested in copper. It holds 10 exploration licenses in Kazakhstan and has an investment in the local junior copper-focused explorer Bai Tau Minerals, which is finalizing its own feasibility study for the Besshoky copper-porphyry deposit in the Karaganda region. Should it confirm the project's viability, Solidcore could consider a larger stake in Besshoky and venture into the copper segment more seriously.

Net importer of electricity

The company, however, is aware of a stumbling block: looming electricity deficits.

"In 2025, Kazakhstan became a net importer of electricity for the first time since the 1970s," Nesis said. "If you look at the country's energy balance, you can see that the south is the most energy-deficient, which is a problem for large copper projects concentrated there and in the center of Kazakhstan. A classic copper porphyry asset needs hundreds of megawatts, but their availability is not a given."

Facing growing energy demand, mostly supplied by old coal-fired power plants, Kazakhstan adopted in 2023 a new energy strategy that bets on nuclear power, with the country planning to launch its first such plant in the mid-2030s.

"This is reasonable given that Kazakhstan is the world's largest uranium producer," Nesis said. "Only it is necessary to understand how long it takes to build a new nuclear power plant."

Renewables come as the next favorite. As lately as Jan. 28, the Kazakh parliament ratified agreements with China to build three wind farms and one solar power plant in the south, center and northeast of Kazakhstan, totaling 1.8 GW.

But renewable energy sources will need balancing stations, according to Nesis.

In December, Solidcore launched a 22.6-megawatt solar plant and plans to add 17 megawatts at its other site. To compensate for the volatility of solar energy production, it is also building 40 megawatts of balancing capacity on natural gas generators, the CEO said, adding that, on a national scale, every 200 megawatts of wind or solar would require about the same amount of balancing capacity.