Yıldırım Group of Companies, which has invested USD 1 billion in Kazakhstan in about 10 years, continues its activities, which started in 2014 with the Voskhod Chrome Mine in Aktobe, with the world’s first and only zero-waste technology Qazaq Soda soda ash production factory.
Based on the Industry 4.0 model, Qazaq Soda’s investment will have an annual production capacity of 500 thousand tons and will employ 300 people. Qazaq Soda will produce 500 thousand tons of raw calcium chloride and 100 thousand tons of salt, as well as soda ash used in glass, chemical, metallurgy, mining and textile industries.
Yuksel Yildirim, Chief Executive Officer of Yildirim Group of Companies, said, “Soda ash is currently imported to Kazakhstan. There is a large amount of foreign currency spent for this. Therefore, we believe that the Qazaq Soda plant, which will be established to meet Kazakhstan’s soda ash consumption, will multiply the socioeconomic impact we have created so far many times over and reduce the country’s trade deficit.”
Noting that with the project, the foundation of which was laid in September 2021, Kazakhstan will move from being a soda importer to the region’s leading soda exporter, Yıldırım said, “We aim to turn the region into an inorganic chemicals production base with other chemical investments we will realize in addition to soda ash.”
Copper and nickel are next in line
Yildirim stated that they are more eager to look for investment opportunities due to the interest they have received in the country, especially from the Kazakhstan Government. Stating that they have five joint venture greenfield mining projects with Kazgeology, Kazakhstan’s state-owned subsidiary, he also announced that negotiations are ongoing to purchase a copper mine and that they have started working to develop nickel projects in the country this year.
