Liu Yu, deputy director general of state-owned CNMC, met with Marat Karabayev, minister of industry and infrastructure development, in the Kazakh capital Astana, state media said. Kazakhstan's largest copper producer Kazakhmys Corp and Kazakh miner KAZ Minerals will also participate in the project, state media added.
CNMC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. A major company that has taken the lead in developing China's overseas non-ferrous mineral resources with numerous investments, CNMC also has an electrolytic aluminium project in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan holds reserves of 20 million tons of copper, according to U.S. Geological Survey. The country produced 453,003 tonnes of refined copper in 2022, up 12.7% from a year earlier, data from the Kazakh Statistics Bureau shows. Shares in CNMC unit, China Nonferrous Metal Industry's Foreign Engineering and Construction , rose 2% in morning Friday trade.
($1 = 6.9018 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Andrew Hayley and Siyi Liu in Beijing, Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; editing by Barbara Lewis and Edwina Gibbs)
