Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are seeking European investment in critical minerals on terms that favour domestic processing and higher-value production, with a potential lithium project and financing discussions already advancing. The shift gives European manufacturers opportunities to engage beyond raw-material supply, while producer countries seek to retain more value and technical capability.
Central Asia combines geological potential with governments willing to attract Western capital, and lies on routes that can connect Asian production with European buyers without relying entirely on Russian infrastructure. The countries are promoting refining, conversion, component production and technical know-how close to mines rather than relying on exports of raw materials.
That approach also puts European capital in competition with Chinese finance and procurement. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are seeking investment across the value chain, making the region more complex for European miners, banks and manufacturers than a conventional sourcing opportunity.
Projects and financing move forward
Germany and Kazakhstan endorsed a 2026-2028 roadmap in late September covering industrial cooperation on mineral extraction, processing and higher-value production in Kazakhstan. German company HMS Bergbau is pursuing a lithium extraction and processing project in eastern Kazakhstan, with potential investment of roughly 445 million euros, subject to confirmation of commercially viable reserves.
Uzbekistan is advancing its mineral strategy through the state-owned Uzbekistan Technological Metals Complex, known as TMK. The company produces tungsten and molybdenum products and says Germany was its first export market; it also reports sales to Belgium and the Netherlands, giving it existing commercial links with European industry.
At a Berlin roadshow in September, TMK presented more than 140 proposed investment projects with an estimated combined value of about 3.7 billion euros. The projects form part of Uzbekistan’s effort to attract investment while developing processing and higher-value production domestically.
On 16 October, TMK signed a preliminary term sheet with France’s Societe Generale for pre-export financing. The agreement followed a mandate signed in June for the bank to arrange 50 million euros to support TMK’s production capacity and exports.
TMK met representatives of the French Development Agency and FERDI on 4 November to discuss international funding for critical-mineral extraction, deep processing and higher-value products. The financing discussions add to European engagement that is moving from diplomatic declarations toward individual structures focused on bankability, sustainability and project preparation.
Investment depends on the full value chain
Lithium and tungsten link Central Asia to European industrial-policy priorities, but investors must assess more than the presence of mineral resources. Relevant factors include resource quality, permitting, water and power availability, logistics through the Middle Corridor, project governance, and internationally acceptable environmental and supply-chain controls.
A mining licence alone is no longer enough, as bankability increasingly depends on the entire mine-to-market chain. The opportunity for European companies includes extraction as well as processing equipment, engineering, project finance, digital mine systems, laboratories and long-term offtake tied to traceable production.
Central Asia is not a simple replacement for China but is emerging as a second industrial platform, with governments expecting investment across the value chain. Germany’s cooperation with Kazakhstan and TMK’s financing discussions illustrate efforts to connect European capital with that domestic industrialisation agenda.
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