Kazakhstan, Russia, top mining risk/reward list
Business Monitor has just released its latest analysis on mining opportunities in Central Europe, and it has listed Kazakhstan and Russia at the top of its risk/reward ratings, due to the substantial rewards on offer in those countries, relative to other European players.
Russia and Kazakhstan may seem like unlikely places for good investment, but Business Monitor says they present a unique opportunity.
While some might shy away from the two nations – Kazakhstan is little-known on the global scale, while Russia could be classed as too well-known, for some of the wrong reasons – Business Monitor’s country comparative risks and rewards ratings show the two as holding perhaps the most potential for prospective mining investors.
“We are optimistic about the growth prospects of the Russian coal industry given Asia’s reliance on coal imports and the Russian government’s US$120bn planned investment in the sector by 2030,” the analyst said in a release yesterday.
Russia is home to some of the world’s largest coal reserves. To capitalise on this, the Kremlin plans to increase Russia’s coal production to 380mt by 2020, and up to 430mt by 2030.
“In addition, the launch of new coal mines in Kuzbass, Russia’s largest coal basin, will continue to support output growth over the coming years,” Business Monitor added.
With regards to Kazakhstan, the analyst predicts its coal production to reach 123mt by 2017, at an annual average growth rate of 2.1% from 2012.
“Our forecast is slightly below the government’s aim of achieving production capacity of 138mtpa by 2016 and up to 151mt by 2020,” the analyst clarified.
Business Monitor believes most of the growth in the landlocked country will come from Bogatyr Coal, as the company enters the third stage of developing its Bogatyr mine.
Source from here
