A clandestine workshop processing gold ore has been shut down in the Akmola region, and its organizer has been detained, according to infohub.kz.
According to the Financial Monitoring Agency, a group of individuals illegally mined precious metals in the Shortandy district. Investigative operations uncovered a workshop equipped for crushing and smelting ore to extract precious metals. During a search, authorities seized equipment, a gold ingot weighing 446 grams, four tons of gold-containing material, six kilograms of mercury, over 2 million tenge and $8,000, as well as firearms and ammunition.
The AFM added that investigators are identifying those involved and determining the amount of illegally mined gold. Similar illicit gold processing workshops were previously uncovered in the East Kazakhstan region.