A company named Rulikha Ltd. has been registered in the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), with Discovery Ventures Kazakhstan Ltd., a subsidiary of British East Star Resources plc, as its founder. This was first noticed by Arman Batayev, author of the Telegram channel Finmentor. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
East Star Resources is a geological exploration company whose shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker EST. The company focuses on developing copper and gold projects in Kazakhstan.
Based on the name of the new company, Rulikha Ltd. was created to develop the Rulikha copper deposit. Its estimated potential is up to 23 million tonnes of copper ore per year with a metal content of 2.4% copper equivalent. The capital of Rulikha Ltd. amounted to $90.
Earlier, it was reported that East Star retained 100% of the promising Rulikha and Talovskoye deposits, including the Soviet-era Rulikhinskoye deposit, which has 23 million tonnes of copper ore with a metal content of 2.4%. In addition, the company is developing gold projects jointly with Endeavour Mining, which invested £1.8 million in East Star and received about 14.3% of its shares.
East Star Resources' main asset in Kazakhstan is the Verkh-Uba deposit in East Kazakhstan. In December 2025, East Star Resources announced the signing of an agreement to create a joint venture under which Chinese Hong Kong Xinhai Mining Services Limited will develop the Verkh-Uba copper deposit. The venture was established in March 2026.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Chinese side must invest $65 million in the project and bring it to the production stage, after which East Star will join in financing. The British company will retain a 30% stake in the producing mine.