Minerals from Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan sits on a wealth of natural resources, with large reserves of ores, minerals and fuels.

It produces various important metal ores including bauxite, chromium, copper, iron, lead, manganese and zinc. It also produces a wide range of fuels including coal, gas, oil and uranium.

It sits on large reserves of bauxite, chromite, lead, tungsten, and uranium – one fifth of the worlds known reserves are located in Kazakhstan.

Mining actually accounts for a huge 32% of Kazakhstans GDP.

Some older specimens collected in Kazakhstan may be labelled as from the Soviet Union. It gets a little more confusing than that, too – as Kazakhstan is switching alphabet from the Cyrillic to the Latin. Some locality names may, therefore, have flawed translations or transliterations.

Kazakhstan does produce a range of gemstones, but the majority are not especially commercially viable, with better quality or simply more available pieces being found in other countries.

I have seen some native copper and native silver wires advertised from Kazakhstan, as well as impactites from the Zhamamshin crater. Personally, the only stock I’ve had from the country so far is a few black Andradite Garnets.

For other specimens from Kazakhstan, see the links below.

Kazakhstan