Kazakh billionaire Vladimir Kim has exited the Aidarly copper project, selling his stake to partner Eduard Ogay. The deal was concluded on October 17, 2025, reports infohub.kz.
Aidarly Project, owned by Kim and Ogay, transferred its subsoil use rights and assets of the Aidarly copper ore deposit in the Abai region to Aidarly Mining, a company founded solely by Ogay. The transaction amount was KZT 11.75 billion, according to Aidarly Project's 2025 financial statements.
As part of the deal, the buyer assumed Aidarly Project's liabilities to TsentrFinance totaling KZT 6.34 billion (in dollar equivalent). The remaining KZT 5.41 billion was transferred by Aidarly Mining in cash on March 26, 2026.
Due to the termination of contractual obligations, the company recognized a one-time income of KZT 7.86 billion and recorded a net profit for 2025 of KZT 6.06 billion, compared to a loss of KZT 5.44 billion the previous year. The company's uncovered loss decreased from KZT 9.02 billion to KZT 2.96 billion.
After the sale of the asset, the company filed for voluntary delisting, and from May 18, 2026, the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) removed its common shares from the official list. By the end of 2025, the company's workforce was reduced from 19 to two people.
The buyer of the asset, Aidarly Mining, is fully owned by businessman Eduard Ogay (No. 15 on the Forbes list of richest Kazakhs with a fortune of $650 million) through one structure, according to Adata data.
In July 2026, Aidarly Mining laid a commemorative capsule at the construction site of the Aidarly mining and processing plant. The project involves processing 75 million tons of ore per year, producing 226 thousand tons of copper and 3.55 thousand tons of molybdenum in concentrates, and the investment volume will create over 3 thousand jobs.
In parallel, changes also affected the shareholder structure of Aidarly Project itself. As of December 31, 2025, the company's shareholders were Kazakhmys Corporation and Dutch Aidarly B.V., with ultimate owners being Vladimir Kim (70%; No. 2 on the Forbes list with $5.9 billion) and Eduard Ogay (30%).
However, on February 2, 2026, 68.95% of the company's shares for KZT 5.4 million were transferred from the already sold Kazakhmys Corporation to Qaz Copper Group, created in December 2025 and controlled by Kim and Ogay.
The deal was part of the reorganization of assets after Kazakhmys itself changed hands to new owner Nurlan Artykbaev at the end of 2025.
The former owners, Kim and Ogay, moved the Aidarly exploration project, the Ozernoye deposit, and a number of other structures into the perimeter of their company Kazakhmys Copper, which in July 2026 announced the payment of almost KZT 400 billion in dividends to shareholders for 2025.
The contract for exploration and production at the Aidarly deposit had been in effect since 2006. Kazakhmys transferred it to the company in 2015, and active geological exploration began in 2019.
In 2020, the project was included in the Industrialization Map of Kazakhstan, and according to an addendum to the contract from April 2023, the production period is calculated until 2042.