MINEX EURASIA 2026✦

Contextual Framework
Section 1 MINEX Eurasia 2026 London · 30 November

The Macroeconomic and Geopolitical Imperative for Eurasia

From peripheral supply to a central node in global mineral security.

The Eurasian mining sector has transcended its historical designation as a mere peripheral supplier of raw, unrefined ores; it is rapidly transforming into a central, indispensable node for global mineral security and value-added processing capabilities.

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Critical mineral demand

The Unprecedented Acceleration in Critical Mineral Demand

The current mining Supercycle is being shaped by accelerating material consumption, industrial decarbonisation, and the strategic reordering of global supply chains.

The fundamental driver of the current mining Supercycle is the exponential increase in global resource consumption. According to the United Nations Global Resources Outlook, global material extraction has tripled over the past fifty years, and the baseline forecast projects an additional 60% increase by the year 2060.

This unprecedented surge is largely fuelled by binding global mandates for industrial decarbonisation and the transition to renewable energy systems.

The technologies that form the vanguard of the energy transition — specifically electric vehicles (EVs), offshore wind turbines, and high-capacity battery storage systems — require significantly higher volumes of critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements compared to traditional, incumbent fossil-fuel-based infrastructure.

Simultaneously, the geopolitical landscape is fracturing into competitive blocs. Western economies, increasingly cognisant of their acute supply chain vulnerabilities and seeking to systematically mitigate dependencies on dominant single-source suppliers, notably the expanding Chinese leadership in clean energy and mining technology, are actively pursuing aggressive policies of friendshoring and supply chain diversification.

Consequently, Eurasian nations, which are historically endowed with vast natural resources, are capitalising on their stated policies of geopolitical non-alignment. This neutrality allows them to attract highly diversified trade flows and direct foreign investment from an array of global partners, including Europe, North America, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Geological catalyst

The Tethyan Metallogenic Belt: A Geographic Catalyst

A vast geological system stretching from Europe through Türkiye, the South Caucasus and Central Asia towards the Himalayas is becoming central to the 2026 investment thesis.

The Tethyan Metallogenic Belt and Eurasian mining geography
Tethyan Belt

Europe to the Himalayas

A mineralised corridor associated with major copper, gold, lead-zinc and critical metal potential across Eurasia.

A central geological feature that will dominate the investment thesis at the 2026 conference is the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt. Stretching expansively from Europe, traversing through Türkiye, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia, before terminating in the Himalayas, this massive geological formation hosts some of the planet's most significant untapped reserves of copper, gold, lead-zinc, and highly sought-after critical metals.

The strategic importance of this belt cannot be overstated.

As mature mining jurisdictions in North America and Australia face declining ore grades and increasingly stringent environmental permitting processes, the relatively underexplored segments of the Tethyan Belt present a generational opportunity for major mining houses and junior explorers alike.

MINEX Eurasia 2026 will serve as the primary conduit for disseminating intelligence regarding the exploration strategies and capital requirements necessary to unlock this specific geographical asset.

Cu

Copper and gold systems

High-value deposits remain central to the belt’s exploration and investment appeal.

Zn

Lead-zinc and polymetallic potential

The belt supports a broad mineral portfolio beyond headline critical metals.

CR

Critical metals opportunity

Underexplored segments create a strategic opening for capital and exploration intelligence.

Strategic autonomy

Decoupling and European Synergy

The agenda for MINEX Eurasia is shaped by Europe’s search for resilient mineral supply chains and Eurasia’s role as the missing link between resources, technology, and capital.

The overarching theme of securing strategic autonomy is heavily echoed across the broader MINEX Forum ecosystem. For instance, the MINEX Europe 2026 conference, held in Ireland prior to the London event, explicitly focuses on aligning Europe's mineral needs with sustainable practices under the banner of "Made in Europe". However, Europe's domestic resource base is insufficient to meet its technological and industrial ambitions independently.

Eurasia is not merely an investment destination; it is the vital missing link in Europe's quest for supply chain resilience.

This structural deficit directly informs the agenda of MINEX Eurasia. The London forum will heavily feature discussions on practical friendshoring — specifically, how to align the critical raw materials of nations like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan with Europe's advanced technological resources and highly capitalised supply chains.

This synergy creates a compelling narrative for the website: Eurasia is not merely an investment destination; it is the vital missing link in Europe's quest for supply chain resilience.

Section 2 · Middle Corridor
Logistics and bottlenecks Industrial integration Caspian · Caucasus · Türkiye

The Middle Corridor — Logistics, Bottlenecks, and Industrial Integration

A defining and pervasive theme for the 2026 mineral strategy in Eurasia is the rapid evolution of the Middle Corridor.

Traditionally viewed by logistics planners as a secondary alternative to the Russian-dominated Northern Corridor — a paradigm shift that was massively accelerated by the geopolitical fallout and subsequent sanctions stemming from the conflict in Ukraine — the Middle Corridor physically links Chinese and broader Asian supply markets with European demand via Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the South Caucasus, and Türkiye.

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Middle Corridor capacity

Exponential Growth and Capacity Targets

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is moving from a transit alternative to a strategic industrial corridor for Eurasian mineral flows.

The quantitative growth of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) is staggering. Data provided by Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Transport indicates that over the past seven years, the volume of cargo transported via the Middle Corridor through Kazakh territory has increased more than fivefold, reaching an excess of 4.5 million tonnes annually.

The objective is to transform the corridor into a fully integrated, value-generating industrial belt.

Furthermore, at a recent summit of the Organisation of Turkic States, heads of government declared a binding intention to increase cargo volumes transported via the TITR by an additional 10% during the 2026 calendar year.

However, the strategic vision articulated by Eurasian policymakers for 2026 extends far beyond serving merely as a passive transit route. The objective, which forms a core discussion pillar for MINEX Eurasia, is to transform the corridor into a fully integrated, value-generating industrial belt.

This involves not just moving raw materials across borders, but processing them along the route, thereby capturing midstream economic value before the goods reach terminal markets in Europe or Asia.

Risk capital and bottlenecks

Infrastructural Friction Points and Geopolitical Volatility

The Middle Corridor should not be positioned as a finished product. Its friction points are precisely where infrastructure capital, sovereign wealth, and development finance can unlock strategic value.

Operational barriers

This ambitious transformation faces substantial physical and political friction points that must be transparently addressed at platforms like MINEX Eurasia to attract the necessary risk capital.

According to comprehensive reports from the OECD and various policy institutes, the barriers to the route's development include severe financial constraints, particularly for smaller Central Asian economies, a historical lack of regional trade integration, the necessity for pan-regional customs standardisation, and highly problematic infrastructural bottlenecks.

The following table categorises the primary infrastructural and geopolitical bottlenecks currently hindering the optimal operational flow of the Middle Corridor, which will be central topics of debate at the conference.

Primary Middle Corridor Bottlenecks

Conference debate topics
Critical Infrastructure Bottleneck Geographic Location Strategic Implications and Associated Risks
Anaklia Deep-Water Port Georgia (Black Sea Coast) Crucial for scalable maritime transport to Europe. Development is severely stalled due to political dysfunction and ambiguity surrounding the Chinese-Singaporean contractor (CCCC). Without this port, scalable transit is structurally compromised.
The TRIPP Route Alternative Southern Armenia Explored by the US as a workaround to Georgian paralysis. Highly vulnerable due to its proximity, 27 miles, to the Iranian border, exposing the route to Iranian geopolitical volatility and horizontal escalation risks.
Caspian Sea Desiccation Kazakhstan / Azerbaijan Border The rapid drying and receding water levels of the Caspian Sea pose an existential threat to the intermodal ferry systems required to move heavy rail freight between Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Almaty Railway Bypass Kazakhstan Essential for cutting logistical friction and distance for cargo originating from Western China. Recent funding injections are positive, but construction timelines remain critical to near-term capacity goals.
Georgia · Black Sea Coast

Anaklia Deep-Water Port

Crucial for scalable maritime transport to Europe. Development is severely stalled due to political dysfunction and ambiguity surrounding the Chinese-Singaporean contractor (CCCC). Without this port, scalable transit is structurally compromised.

Southern Armenia

The TRIPP Route Alternative

Explored by the US as a workaround to Georgian paralysis. Highly vulnerable due to its proximity, 27 miles, to the Iranian border, exposing the route to Iranian geopolitical volatility and horizontal escalation risks.

Kazakhstan / Azerbaijan Border

Caspian Sea Desiccation

The rapid drying and receding water levels of the Caspian Sea pose an existential threat to the intermodal ferry systems required to move heavy rail freight between Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Kazakhstan

Almaty Railway Bypass

Essential for cutting logistical friction and distance for cargo originating from Western China. Recent funding injections are positive, but construction timelines remain critical to near-term capacity goals.

Section 3 · Midstream opportunity
Regulatory renaissance Central Asia Value chain capture

The Midstream Opportunity and Regulatory Renaissance in Central Asia

Eurasian economies are moving from raw extraction toward processing, value capture, and industrial upgrading.

Eurasian nations, acutely aware of the historical pitfalls of resource dependency, are strategically transitioning their economic models from the raw extraction of ores to midstream processing. This deliberate structural shift aims to capture significantly higher profit margins within the mineral value chain by producing complex intermediate products, such as battery precursors, refined metals, and specialized technological alloys.

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Kazakhstan regulatory reform

The Kazakhstan 2026 Tax Code: A Catalyst for Value Creation

Kazakhstan’s 2026 tax reform is designed to shift the investment thesis from raw export to domestic processing, refining, and higher-value mineral production.

Regulatory renaissance

The Republic of Kazakhstan serves as the vanguard for this regulatory renaissance. At previous iterations of MINEX Eurasia, leading industry executives and government officials highlighted a profound and ongoing regulatory overhaul in the country, described by numerous stakeholders as the most significant structural reform in decades.

The new tax architecture is designed to systematically disincentivise the bulk export of unrefined materials.

The cornerstone of this reform is the implementation of a comprehensive new tax code, which legally comes into force on 1 January 2026.

Maxim Kononov, the First Deputy Executive Director of the Association of Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises of Kazakhstan, has publicly detailed the mechanics of this legislation, which mandates a transition to a royalty-based system specifically designed for greenfield projects.

Graduated Royalty Rates under the New 2026 Kazakh Tax Code

Value creation bracket
Material Processing Stage Applied Royalty Rate Strategic Objective of the Tax Bracket
Raw Ore 13% Heavily penalises the export of unprocessed earth, forcing operators to reconsider pure-extraction.
Concentrates 10% Provides a moderate incentive for basic physical and chemical separation, though still yielding substantial revenue to the state.
Processed Metals 7% Highly incentivises the construction of advanced metallurgical facilities, capturing maximum value and creating high-skilled domestic employment.
13% royalty

Raw Ore

Heavily penalises the export of unprocessed earth, forcing operators to reconsider pure-extraction.

10% royalty

Concentrates

Provides a moderate incentive for basic physical and chemical separation, though still yielding substantial revenue to the state.

7% royalty

Processed Metals

Highly incentivises the construction of advanced metallurgical facilities, capturing maximum value and creating high-skilled domestic employment.

Reform stability

Defending the Reforms and Ensuring Stability

A core message for prospective delegates is that Kazakhstan’s reform agenda is not only ambitious, but politically defended, institutionally reinforced, and increasingly aligned with London investor expectations.

Ruslan Baimishev, President of the Kazakhstan Chamber of Mines
Kazakhstan Chamber of Mines

Ruslan Baimishev

President of the Kazakhstan Chamber of Mines. His public comments frame reform stability as a decisive condition for investor confidence.

Political resilience

A critical narrative that must be communicated to prospective delegates is the stability and resilience of these reforms. Ruslan Baimishev, President of the Kazakhstan Chamber of Mines, has openly acknowledged the internal political battles fought to secure this environment.

The industry's primary recent victory was successfully halting parliamentary attempts to reverse the progressive 2018 subsoil use reforms.

He noted that the industry's primary recent victory was successfully halting parliamentary attempts to reverse the progressive 2018 subsoil use reforms, preventing a catastrophic return to restrictive, Soviet-era regulatory methodologies.

Furthermore, the reforms have fundamentally liberalised the sector by opening vast, previously restricted territories for subsoil use rights, while concurrently implementing an unprecedented, comprehensive geological mapping programme covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.

These progressive policies, now safely guarded against political reversion, unequivocally position Kazakhstan — and by extension, the broader Central Asian collective — as a highly investable, secure, and critical node in the global supply chain.

Governance and ESG

Reforms must also be visible inside companies.

Furthermore, presentations by experts such as Tania Tchedaeva have highlighted that these structural reforms are being matched by an internal push for advanced corporate governance within Eurasian mining firms, ensuring they meet the stringent ESG and operational standards demanded by London-based institutional investors.

2018

Subsoil reform defended

Political attempts to reverse progressive subsoil reforms were successfully halted.

Map

Geological coverage expanded

Comprehensive mapping strengthens investor visibility across new territories.

ESG

Governance standards rising

Corporate governance is becoming a central bridge to institutional capital.