Yulin Guitong's 1.2 Billion Yuan Secondary Copper Resource Project Starts Construction

On July 30, the Kazakh government announced that it had approved the investment agreement signed between the Ministry of Industry and Construction and Qazaq Smelter LLP for the Balkhash copper smelter project. The total private investment for the project is 750 billion tenge (approximately $1.58 billion). Construction is planned to start in 2027, with production commencing in 2030. The project is designed to produce 300,000 mt of copper cathode, 10 mt of gold, 300 mt of silver, and over 1.5 million mt of sulphuric acid annually, and will create around 1,200 permanent jobs. The Kazakh government expects that, once commissioned, the project will boost the country’s copper production by about 50% to above 800,000 mt, and increase exports of high-value-added copper products from 460,000 mt to 760,000 mt. Currently, the project is still at the stage of having its investment agreement approved, and the authorities have not yet disclosed its source of copper concentrates, process route, financing, or EPC arrangements. In addition, KAZ Minerals also plans to build another 300,000 mt/year copper smelter in the Abai Region, with a latest commissioning target of 2030–2031. If both projects proceed as planned, the combined new nominal copper cathode capacity in Kazakhstan will reach 600,000 mt/year, and the capacity for domestic smelting of copper concentrates may see a notable increase.

President Donald Trump has signed a presidential determination granting the U.S. Commerce Department authority under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to restrict exports of industrial waste containing recoverable critical minerals and materials (CMMs). The executive measure targets end-of-life products—including spent lithium-ion batteries and permanent magnets, that hold significant reclaimable volumes of vital strategic elements. By invoking Cold War-era DPA powers, the White House aims to prevent secondary scrap feedstock from leaving the country, bolstering domestic processing capacity and curbing reliance on foreign supply chains, particularly China. Rather than relying solely on greenfield mining projects with extended lead times, the policy effectively establishes domestic industrial scrap as an immediately accessible strategic reserve. The move is expected to support U.S. recycling infrastructure, secure essential raw materials for defense manufacturing and high-tech sectors, and keep critical processing value added within American borders.