The national mining company Tau-Ken Samruk (TKS) ended 2025 with an 11% increase in assets, reaching 1.0 trillion tenge. TKS became the eighth portfolio company of the Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund to reach the trillion-tenge mark. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Unlike other portfolio companies, TKS's fixed assets decreased by 5% (to 117 billion tenge), and long-term assets fell by 1% (to 765 billion tenge). In 2025, the company concluded several important deals. First, agreements were signed to sell a stake in the tungsten project Severny Katpar. In May 2026, TKS transferred 70% control of Severny Katpar to the US company Cove Capital, linked to the sons of US President Donald Trump. The deal amount was $115 million (58 billion tenge). The tungsten trioxide content in the ore (0.23%) is low by global standards.
TKS also sold the lead-silver joint venture Alaygyr for 350 million tenge to Chinese Zhekuang Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. The transfer of ownership was to occur after the subsidiary repaid 29 billion tenge in debt to the parent company. However, in the unaudited report for the first half of 2026, both assets are still listed as fully owned by TKS.
TKS's core function is to find, prepare, and sell projects to strategic investors. Its own project, the Shalkiya lead-zinc deposit, continues to incur losses. In 2025, ShalkiyaZinc LTD posted a loss of 12 billion tenge, and investment cash outflows increased from 11 to 28 billion tenge. After the termination of the financing agreement with the EBRD, TKS is funding the project itself.
The main problem with Shalkiya is the prolonged project, leading to additional liabilities. The Supreme Audit Chamber identified deviations of 2 billion tenge, which the company recognized as a provision. Another 5 billion tenge provision is related to the Masalsky GOK.
TKS is increasing capital investments, but the volume remains modest: in 2025, cash outflows for investment activities grew 2.3 times (from 12 to 28 billion tenge), while the Capex/revenue ratio remained at 1%.
Current assets grew by 85% (to 235 billion tenge). Accounts receivable increased by 53% (to 23 billion tenge), inventories by 50% (to 30 billion tenge). Investment securities worth 18 billion tenge appeared — dollar-denominated bonds of foreign and Kazakh issuers.
Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 142 billion tenge (60% of current assets, 14% of total assets). The company actively used reverse repo: by year-end, this item accounted for 60% of cash structure. Interest income from these operations was 0.6 billion tenge. Foreign currency funds on short-term deposits decreased from 20 to 0.2 billion tenge.
As an organization with free cash, TKS regularly helped parent and sister companies and participated in bank rescues. The contribution to Kazpost decreased from 39 to 18 billion tenge. The balance sheet still holds 0.1% securities of Alatau City Bank, acquired in 2019 during the stabilization of former Tsesnabank.
Unlike other portfolio companies, TKS virtually eliminated all debt. Asset growth was driven solely by capital increase, which reached 869 billion tenge (+14%). The company has not paid dividends for three consecutive years, boosting retained earnings to 174 billion tenge (in 2023, there was a retained loss of 23 billion tenge).
TKS's liabilities decreased by 6% (to 131 billion tenge), including 87 billion tenge (–7%) in long-term liabilities and 44 billion tenge (–2%) in short-term liabilities. In the short-term portion, accounts payable account for 32 billion tenge (+88%). In the long-term portion, issued debt obligations amount to 72 billion tenge (–8%). The company has had no long-term loans for two years, and current loans disappeared by the end of 2025.
The company has sufficient funds to finance development projects. Total contracted obligations under work programs for deposits amount to 164 billion tenge, two-thirds of which are for the Shalkiya project.