ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s silver industry is shrinking even as prices soar. Production has now declined for a fifth straight year, underscoring a widening gap between market value and physical output.
Photo credit: kazzinc.com
In 2024, 697.5 tons of refined silver were produced in Kazakhstan, the lowest figure since 2012. Over the year, production fell by 21.2%, reported the Energy Prom analytical website.
Between January and November last year, the country produced 567.5 tons of refined silver, which is 11.1% less than in the same period of 2024.
Exports tell a more complicated story. Silver exports declined by 9% in volume during the first ten months of 2025, yet export revenues climbed nearly 20%, reaching $581 million. More than 96% of Kazakhstan’s silver exports were concentrated in just four countries, with the bulk flowing to the United Kingdom and the United States.
World production in 2024. Photo credit: U.S. Geological Survey
The average export value of silver rose sharply, from around $27 per troy ounce in January-October 2024 to $35 in the same period of 2025. In October alone, silver briefly surged to nearly $45 an ounce.
Silver prices accelerated sharply in the second half of last year. At the start of 2025, the metal was trading at around $31 per troy ounce. By early this year, the price had surged to nearly $73, more than doubling in just 12 months. To put that jump in perspective: it took nine years, from 2016 to 2025, for silver prices to rise by roughly the same magnitude.
The chaotic start of 2026 sent prices even further. This week, silver rose above $90 per ounce and is up 29% this year, according to expert estimates.
The surge has unfolded alongside an extraordinary rise in gold prices. This year, gold pushed past $4,600 an ounce, breaking yet another historic record and reinforcing a broader shift toward safe-haven amid global uncertainty. The Astana Times did a thorough analysis of the gold market earlier.
Unlike gold, which retains its status as a safe-haven asset, silver is acting as a hybrid asset in the current cycle, serving both as an investment and an industrial metal.
For centuries, silver was used as the basis for many monetary systems. Among metals, silver stands apart. It is the whitest and most reflective, and it conducts heat and electricity better than any other metal. Its chemical compounds, known as silver halides, are also highly sensitive to light.
These properties have made silver indispensable across a range of industries. It is widely used in mirrors and in electrical and electronic equipment, while photography, which relies on silver’s light-sensitive qualities, remains its single largest end use.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, silver also plays a critical role in industrial chemistry. Its catalytic properties make it particularly effective in oxidation reactions, including the production of formaldehyde from methanol and air, a process that uses silver catalysts with a purity of at least 99.95%.
It is this dual nature that makes it more sensitive to changes in macroeconomic expectations and amplifies price dynamics under reduced uncertainty.
In 2024, global silver production also declined. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, global silver mine production went down to an estimated 25,000 tons from 25,500 tons in 2023.
While Mexico and China dominate global silver production, Kazakhstan also ranks among the world’s top ten producers. Industrial gold and silver mining is conducted across Kazakhstan, including the northern, southern, central, and northeastern regions.
Kazzinc is a leading producer of silver in the country, boasting silver as its second major precious metal. At the Ust-Kamenogorsk Metallurgical Complex, silver is obtained through the refining of doré alloy, followed by smelting and further processing of silver-bearing concentrates.
