Ministry of Mining Industry and Geology of the Republic of Uzbekistan

The mining and geology sector plays an important role in the country's economy. In 2025, enterprises in the sector accounted for 20 percent of total industrial output and generated 118.5 trillion soums in budget revenues.

Therefore, addressing the challenges of the sector’s technological transformation, ensuring the efficient use of production and labor resources, and expanding the adoption of modern digital solutions are of strategic importance for strengthening economic security, attracting investment, and ensuring the rational use of natural resources.

The concepts of sustainable development and digital geology continue to evolve worldwide. Efforts have also been made in this area in Uzbekistan. In particular, major mining enterprises reduced operating expenses by 7.3 trillion soums in 2025, while production costs declined by 9.1 percent.

The Geomonitoring information system has been introduced, and data on more than 2,000 mineral deposits have been digitized.

It was noted that efforts are underway to increase reserves by 879 tons of gold, 510 tons of silver, and 676,000 tons of copper over the next five years.

Artificial intelligence technologies enable the rapid analysis of geological data, the prediction of mineral deposits, the accurate assessment of reserves, and the improvement of drilling efficiency. To this end, AI-based solutions are planned to be introduced at all stages of the geological exploration process.

The President emphasized the need to take the sector’s technological transformation to a new level and establish a system for managing and analyzingproduction processes based on artificial intelligence.

The mining and geology sector generates large volumes of data, including maps, geological survey results, drilling data, laboratory analyses, and production indicators. By consolidating this information into a unified electronic database and enabling rapid search and analysis through 3D modeling, the potential for discovering new mineral deposits can be significantly increased.

It was noted that this would make it possible to reduce production costs by 10 percent, halve the time required to identify new deposits, and increase the number of investment proposals fourfold.

The presentation also outlined plans to attract $30 billion in investment to the geology and mining sector by 2030. Achieving this goal will require, first and foremost, the creation of a high-quality and reliable digital database that meets investor requirements.

In this regard, a proposal was put forward to establish a National Geological Database. As part of this initiative, a Center for Technological Transformation will be established, and more than 36,000 existing reports and primary data will be digitized. As a result, the quality and speed of geological data generation will double, while deposit modeling and reserve estimation processes will be accelerated twofold.

Plans were presented to implement 32 projects between 2026 and 2030 aimed at introducing artificial intelligence and digital technologies at six major enterprises in the mining, metallurgical, and processing industries: Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Company, Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Comlex, and the joint-stock companies Navoiyuran, Uzmetkombinat, Uzbekcoal, and Uzbekistan Technological Metals Complex.

These projects cover five key areas: the automation of production processes, the digitalization of corporate governance, the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies, the enhancement of laborand industrial safety, and the digital transformation of geological exploration activities.

Implementation of these projects is expected to increase operational efficiency by 7 percent, improve the reliability of machinery and equipment by 20 percent, and enhance energy efficiency by 8 percent. Human-factor-related errors and risks are also projected to be reduced by 15 percent.

It was noted that these solutions should be patented in the future.

Responsible officials were instructed to include measures to improve the efficiency of production and laborresources in developing business plans for mining enterprises and to approve separate programs for technology and artificial intelligence projects.