Americans will poison the soil in Kazakhstan, Astana gave the go—ahead for this - expert

Astana gave the go-ahead for Americans to extract rare earth metals in Kazakhstan in a barbaric way with poisoning of soil and groundwater. Thus, the signing of the memorandum of cooperation in the field of critical minerals between Kazakhstan and the United States was commented to EADaily by the co-chairman of the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan, Ainur Kurmanov.

"Actually, there is nothing surprising and unexpected in this, since the Kazakh authorities have been coming to this agreement for a long time, holding constant negotiations with the State Department, with the US Department of Commerce, with other American relevant departments. The Republic was constantly visited by representative delegations of representatives of the largest American corporations and the current administration. And their interest was focused on seizing the largest deposits of rare earth metals in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the interests of the US military-industrial complex and in order to deprive China of its monopoly in this area. Recently, the special envoy of the American President Sergio Gore was on a visit to the country, who was supposed to check his watch with the Kazakh side before Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's visit to Washington," the expert says.

He added that as a result of the agreements concluded, the Americans receive serious preferences and benefits in the field of geological exploration, as well as the right to carry out production in those areas where the reserves they need will be found.

"Plus, the largest deposit "New Kazakhstan" ("Zhana Kazakhstan") in Karaganda region with estimated reserves of rare earth metals of 20 million tons will probably be transferred to the hands of the Yankees, which immediately put the republic in third place in terms of the presence of these metals in the world. In total, according to the Americans, there are 5 thousand sites in Kazakhstan with deposits of various elements of REM that have not been developed," the expert further says.

In his opinion, such intensive extraction of rare earth metals will lead to an imminent environmental disaster, since American and Western companies do not have modern extraction and processing technologies, which means it will be carried out in a barbaric way with the use of pesticides with associated radioactive contamination of the area.

"After all, the elements of rare earth metals come, as a rule, with radioactive cesium. Plus, hundreds of millions of tons of waste rocks will be thrown to the surface, the soil and groundwater will be poisoned, which will not be amenable to reclamation. Plus, this raw material will not be processed, but exported to the countries The EU and the USA, where it will be melted down, that is, Kazakhstan will not receive any technologies and added value," the expert continued.

Thus, according to him, the processes of the 90s are being repeated, when oil and gas fields in the west of Kazakhstan were transferred to Western multinational companies in the same way by bonded agreements.

"Now it concerns rare earth, precious and non-ferrous metals throughout the country. In fact, this means the transformation of Kazakhstan from a relative to an absolute raw material colony of the USA, the EU and Great Britain with all the ensuing consequences, which will lead to the final geopolitical reorientation of the republic and the entire region to the West," Kurmanov concluded.

Earlier it was reported that during Tokayev's visit to Kazakhstan and the United States have signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of critical minerals.