AltynEx Company, owned by millionaires Eldar Sarsenov and Dinmukhamed Idrisov, plans to mine 420,000 tonnes of gold-containing ore annually in the shaft at the Yubileynoye deposit in the Aktobe region from 2027 to 2036. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Initially, the company considered both open-pit and underground mining simultaneously, but ultimately abandoned the development of the open pit.
«During operational exploration in 2025-2026, it was discovered that the mineral deposit lies at a depth that allows its extraction only by underground method. Open-pit mining is impossible and would constitute irrational use of the subsoil,» the company reports.
The development of the Yubileynoye deposit began in 1971 by open-pit method. After 2001, a transition from open-pit to underground mining began. Open-pit mining ceased in 2005, but the company planned to conduct mining by a combined method, i.e., in the pit and shaft, from the second quarter of 2026.
At the same time, the annual capacity of the underground mine was indicated as 350,000 tonnes per year, and it was also planned to launch an processing plant with a capacity of 5 million tonnes of ore per year by the end of 2026 (in AltynEx Company's report for the first half of the year, it was noted that the construction of the plant was still ongoing).
This was expected to be achieved through timely opening of reserves and additional exploration of ore bodies. Taking into account the attenuation, it was expected to complete mining in the shaft within 3.5 years. The company has an act for the lease of a land plot of 248.17 hectares for 25 years.
The Yubileynoye gold ore deposit is located in the Mugalzhar district of the Aktobe region – 250 km southeast of the city of Aktobe and 45 km from the Zhem railway station. The nearest settlement is the village of Altyndy, located 1.7 km from the deposit.
The deposit already has the Kapitalnaya and Ventilyatsionnaya shafts with a depth of 520 meters. Ore and rock will be lifted from the first shaft (it operates this way now), and the second shaft is used for laying communications (air, water, electricity, communications, signaling).
In 2011, sample results showed a gold content of 2.87 grams per tonne, as well as 6.1 grams of silver. The samples also contained 4.95% iron, 0.242% copper, 0.012% zinc and 0.016% lead.
According to the state commission on reserves, as of June 30, 2026, the confirmed and preliminarily estimated gold reserves of the Yubileynoye deposit amounted to 70.63 tonnes (as of December 31, 2025 – 71.38 tonnes).
AltynEx Company has a license for the extraction of gold-containing ore, for the exploration of solid minerals and for the extraction of building stone. The company's profit in 2025 amounted to 18.7 billion tenge, which is 59% more compared to 2024.
In January-June, AltynEx Company mined 250.04 kg of gold in commercial ore compared to 1029.5 kg in 2025. The company sold 214.9 thousand tonnes of ore for 24.97 billion tenge in the first half of the year compared to 253.7 thousand tonnes of ore for 22.96 billion tenge in the same period of 2025. In turn, profit amounted to 6.1 billion and 7.5 billion tenge, respectively.
According to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), as of October 1, 30.12% of AltynEx Company shares belong to businessman Yerzhan Dostybaev, 28.59% to Eldar Sarsenov (son of Rashit Sarsenov, the Sarsenov family ranks 10th in the Forbes richest list with a fortune of $972 million) and 26.1% to Dinmukhamed Idrisov, who ranks 17th on the list with a fortune of $605 million.