A court in East Kazakhstan has sentenced a group for illegal gold mining. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Sputnik Kazakhstan.
According to the regional prosecutor's office, in June 2025, foreign nationals were detained in the valley of the Bolshoy and Maly Shybydy rivers for illegal activities. Special equipment, tools, gold-bearing raw materials, and cash were confiscated.
"It was established that a group of local residents and citizens of the People's Republic of China in 2024-2025 independently mined gold on the territory of the Ulan district, causing damage to the forest fund," the statement said.
The criminals illegally mined 15 kg of gold. The state suffered damages of 766 million tenge.
On July 21, 2026, the Specialized Interdistrict Criminal Court of Ust-Kamenogorsk found the defendants guilty of illegal mining of precious metals on an especially large scale and sentenced them to various terms of imprisonment. The verdict has not entered into legal force.