Kyrgyzstan: Mining Kyrgyzstan: Chinese Companies Encounter Increasing Conflict

Nov 29, 2021 | Khiradmand Sheraliev, Diplomat
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Kyrgyzstan’s mining industry has long been considered one of the country’s leading economic sectors. During the Soviet era, Kyrgyzstan’s rich and diverse mineral resources had considerable promise for the Soviet Union. The Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic was the USSR’s greatest source of mineral raw materials, accounting for 15-18 percent of total lead output, 40-100 percent of mercury, and 100 percent of antimony. From the early years of independence, the Kyrgyz government designated gold mining as a driving force in the economy. Even more important, as Saipira Furstenberg and Kemel Toktomushev wrote in a 2021 working paper, “Kyrgyzstan was among the first post-Soviet countries to liberalize its mining sector.” Currently, the mining industry accounts for more than half of the country’s industrial production, compromising 29.2 percent of its total GDP.