Kazakh officials said on 11 June, during the week of the Astana Mining and Metallurgy Congress, that the country’s titanium accounts for roughly 20 percent of the global aerospace market, a reminder of its place in the supply chains of the world’s planemakers. They also announced plans to invest around 470 million dollars in geological exploration between 2026 and 2028 to widen the reserve base.
The figures land as Kazakhstan courts Western and Chinese investment in mining and tries to move from raw exports toward processing. Titanium, produced at Ust-Kamenogorsk, is one of the few areas where the country already sits high in a global value chain rather than at the bottom of it.