Mining, metallurgy problems, prospects to be discussed in Astana

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 4 (Itar-Tass) - Problems of current concern
and prospects for the development of mining and metallurgy are to be
discussed at the second international mining-and-metallurgical congress
that opens here on Monday.
The congress has drawn chiefs of state bodies, top managers of
transnational companies and representatives of stock exchanges, rating and
auditing agencies, and experts from 25 countries that are the leaders on
the mining and metallurgical market.
Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev is expected to declare the
forum's plenary session open.
Congress organizers say that among the speakers and guests of honour
at the forum will be such persons as Prime Minister Karim Masimov,
Vice-Premier Aset Isekeshev,Timur Kulibayev, director of the national
wellbeing foundation Samruk-Kazyna, Xavier Rolet, chief of the London
Stock Exchange Group, Lawrence Fok, chief marketing officer of the Hong
Kong London Exchange Group Ltd, Norbert Justin, Head of the Delegation of
the European Union to Kazakhstan, Andreas Beier, managing director of the
ThyssenKrupp Metallurgie, Chris Welton, Australian-British Rio Tinto
Company's director of geological prospecting in Central Asia, and many
other prominent figures.
Russia is represented at the congress by Oleg Soskovets, Chairman of
the Association of Financial and Industrial Groups of the Russian
Federation.
First-day discussions will deal with state regulation of the mining
and metallurgical sector, innovations, research efforts, and the problems
of restoring the activity of metal markets. Those present are expected to
exchange opinions about demand for metals forecast for the coming decade,
risks of the sector, and new forms of attracting financing.
An exhibition will be arranged within the framework of the congress
with the participation of about 90 companies from Russia, Kazakhstan,
China, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Japan, Germany, Italy, and the Czech
Republic. The exhibition will feature the latest achievements in such
sectors as goldmining, innovation technologies for the mining and
metallurgical industry, education and service segments. More than 1,000
specialists of the sector are expected to visit the exhibition.
A number of roundtable meetings are to be held on the second day of
the congress. Those present at roundtable discussions will examine
interaction between sectoral associations and the State, the training of
industry personnel, as well as prospects for the mining and metallurgical
industry of Kazakhstan. A number of mutually beneficial memorandums and
contracts are expected to be signed at the forum.
According to Albert Rau, First Vice-Minister for Industry and New
Technologies of Kazakhstan, the Congress which first met in 2010, has
developed into "a corporate dialogue floor, at which a package of business
investment proposals getss formed". "There must be an internat synergy
between users of subsoil resources, the processing sector, and Kazakhstani
science which affords a sufficiently high potential for contributing to
the development of metallurgy and to attaining the goals that the sector
is faced with," Rau pointed out.
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