Three major industrial projects for deep coal processing have been launched in Kazakhstan. Companies linked to Denis Cherkashin, a deputy of the Ekibastuz city maslikhat, have received licenses to produce diesel fuel in the Karaganda and Pavlodar regions, according to infohub.kz.

According to the Ministry of Energy, two projects to produce diesel fuel from coal, each with a capacity of 100,000 tons, are being implemented by Naz Dan Group in the Pavlodar region and Alfa Plast in the Karaganda region. Both enterprises have already been issued subsoil use licenses.

According to Adata, Denis Cherkashin is the founder of these companies, as well as of KAZ NEDRO RESURS. He is a deputy of the Ekibastuz city maslikhat and an independent director of Satbayev University. Cherkashin's third company also plans to produce 100,000 tons of diesel fuel at the Sarykol deposit.

In addition, a plant for the production of metallurgical coke with a capacity of one million tons per year is being built in the Karaganda region together with a Chinese investor. The Ministry of Energy did not provide the names of the companies.

The Ministry of Energy has developed a draft Roadmap for the period from 2026 to 2031. The document includes a coke-chemical cluster that envisages processing up to 200,000 tons of resin and producing benzene.

In the Abai region, Samal Commodities intends to produce 300,000 tons of ammonia and 520,000 tons of urea. The founder of this enterprise is listed as Bernard Dairbekov. He is the son of Nurbeck Dairbekov, who served as vice-minister of agriculture in 2021 and chairman of the board of Prodcorporation in 2019.

"The development of coal chemistry will allow a transition from a predominantly raw-material model of coal use to the production of higher value-added products," the ministry emphasized.

In April 2025, Nikolay Radostovets, executive director of the Association of Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises, called for not limiting Kazakhstan's raw materials agenda to rare earth metals and to pay attention to the development of coal chemistry.

At the MINEX Kazakhstan conference, he noted that demand for certain types of raw materials changes with technology: at different times, aluminum, copper, and steel were in focus, and then interest in rare earth metals surged. At the same time, according to him, Kazakhstan needs to attract investment in the coal industry as well, despite the global trend toward reducing coal combustion.