At the beginning of February, the major titles in Uzbekistan proclaimed that 31 Golden Board Région Sites were sold at auction, many saying that the majority of buyers were Chinese.
As is often the case, there was a degree of nuance that was lost in the initial chatter. Public fixation, however, on the Chinese aspect is used to illustrate the sensitivities of the Uzbek public and the growing involvement of Chinese companies in Central Asia – even if everything is not what the most Salaces rumors filter via social media have proclaimed.
On February 4, the E-Ansion platform organized an online auction of 31 plots of land sold, collectively for 25.1 billion Som Ouzbeks ($ 1.95 million) to 12 companies. The plots, located in the Nurota and Karmana swimming districts, were intended for mining access to swimming, Nurota, Aksakalota, Sop and Shukhsay.
Kun.uz said that during the auctions, “prices increased sharply due to competition between tenderers, and 31 plots were sold for a total of 25.1 billion SOM. This is 23 times more than the total starting price of lots. »»
The most expensive plot, Kun.uz reported, was the SOP-10/24 plot in the Nurota district, which sold at the Xinlong Mining Drilling Company With an offer of 3.6 billion SOM, 110 times higher than the starting price.
Xinlong Mining Drilling also took the second most expensive plot, SOP-14/24, with an offer of 1.9 billion SOMs, as well as six other gold extraction sites for a total of 9.1 billion SOM.
The other companies which won plots included the extraction of Neo Gold (four plots, 2.7 billion Soms), the mining group of Zhonghuitong (four plots, 1.13 billion soms) and golden diggers (three plots, 3.24 billion soms). In total, 12 companies left with winning offers and new mining plots.
Given the names of certain companies, it was perhaps not surprising that many supposed to be Chinese. This story dominated the conversation on auction last month.
At the regional level, the prospect of selling land to foreigners, in particular Chinese, is very incendiary. For example, in neighboring Kazakhstan in 2016, changes in the country’s land code that opened public agricultural land for privatization and possible rental by foreigners Triggered protests which were important enough for delay changes. Jump around 2021,, When President Kazakh Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sign A Bill who prohibited The sale and rental of agricultural land to foreigners.
The center for the use of the basement, a Ouzbek government entity that problems allow mining activities, published a statement via the telegram On February 22, this declared unequivocally: “We refuse information that 31 swimming mines were sold to the Chinese.” The declaration sought to clarify that the permits for “the right to use plots of basement” – in other words, to prospect and to extract them – “are only issued to the legal entities recorded in the Republic of Uzbekistan or citizens of Uzbekistan …”
Of the 12 companies that have won offers in online action, the Center for Subil Use said that some were entirely held by Uzbeks citizens and that none of them belongs to foreigners. Citing some examples, the center said that the drilling of Xinlong mines was 70% owned by Uzbeks citizens and the Zhonghuitong mine was 97.6% of Uzbek.
The center has closed its declaration by stressing that China is one of the main economic partners of Uzbekistan: “In the current era of globalization, the strengthening of links with China is an important engine for the economic development of our country, the development of exports, economic modernization and the expansion and diversification of transit roads.”
RFE / RL and Kun.uz reported This Xinlong mining drill was founded in the summer of 2024, with Bakhtiyor Musurmanov, an Uzbek citizen, listed 70% of the authorized capital of the company. The remaining 30 percent belongs to three foreign and Chinese citizens: Zeng Xianming, Yang Dianlin and Zhou Hongli.
In 2024China has exceeded Russia in terms of direct foreign investment in Uzbekistan. Of more than 15,000 foreign companies operating in Uzbekistan, 3,467 were Chinese – an increase of 42.5% compared to the previous year. The increase in China occurs while Russia has vacillated. The number of Russian companies decreased by 2.5%, from 3,049 at the start of 2024 to 2,973 by the start of 2025.
In a Interview with RFE / RLTemur Umarov from Carnegie Berlin Center for the Russian and Eurasian Studies made a clever observation:
Here, we do not only see the incarnation of the fact that in Central Asia, they are skeptical about China due to insufficient information, an insufficient understanding of Chinese interests, an insufficient understanding of what China is, etc. But there is also the factor of low confidence in their own elites. There are feelings in the company that say that the elites can sell their own country, their national interests to literally anyone who offers an amount, including China.
It will not be the last that we intend to talk about gold extraction in Uzbekistan. Navo Mining and Metallurgical Co (NMMC)., Le Monde Fourth largest gold producer,, can have your eyes on a IPO this year – A prospect that was launched in 2022 and 2023 but undoubtedly delayed by the war in Ukraine. Currently, the company is 98% owned by the Uzbek Ministry of the Economy and Finance, the rest owned by the State asset management agency. According to reports last year by Daryo.uzThe “NMMC contribution to state budgetary income was 14.1%, making it the largest taxpayer in the country”.
And there is More than gold under the floor in Uzbekistan. The global rush for critical minerals will certainly come into play, and again, Chinese investment and participation will arouse attention.