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Investigation: Is Shakhmurat Mutalip Kazakhstan’s New Chosen One?  

The 35-year-old is building an empire spanning railways, energy and mining. Most Kazakhs have never heard of him.

Photo posted on Kyzaibayev’s public profile on VKontakte. Darkhan Kyzaibayev (far left), Kudrat Shamiev (next left) and Shakmurat Mutalip (far right) have been together from their school days in Kazcik 

A photo posted in 2013 on the Russian social media site VKontakte shows a group of young men posing together at the top of a staircase. It is unclear when the image was taken, but it is geotagged to Askar Tokpanov, better known as Kazcik, a village outside Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty.

More than a decade later, at least three of the former schoolmates in the photo are involved in a network of companies handling contracts worth billions of dollars from state entities, and two now lead national sports federations. To believe local and foreign press reports, one of them is taking over Kazakhstan’s economy on a month-by-month basis.

Shakhmurat Mutalip, on the far right of the photo, is well known in Kazcik but not to the wider Kazakh public, despite his role leading the national boxing federation. Even within the business community of Central Asia’s richest economy, he is less recognized than the all-conquering company he owns, Integra Construction KZ.

But if ongoing talks behind closed doors break in his favor, the 35-year-old could soon control all or part of several major Kazakh mining companies, positioning him at the center of global supply chains for critical minerals, long-term purchase agreements with Western firms, and complicated credit relationships with sanctioned Russian banks.

Screenshot of Financial Times article on Mutalip’s bid for ERG.

If that prospect is giving international observers pause, there is little sign of hesitation in Kazakhstan.

Last year, another company linked to Mutalip won a contract with Chinese investors to build a $6 billion power plant in the north of the country. Its subsidiary is reportedly overseeing construction of a gas processing facility at the supergiant Kashagan oil field.

And Integra is towering over the rail industry at a time when the network is undergoing its largest modernization since independence, with Kazakhstan at the heart of huge connectivity projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the multi-country Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor. 

But before Integra, there is little to suggest that Mutalip was a high-net-worth individual or the owner of any significant company. What’s more, his acquisition of Integra took place in highly unusual circumstances and may have involved less than $100,000 of his own money.

So, what does his near-overnight rise say about the “Just, Strong and Prosperous Kazakhstan” proclaimed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev?

And who is Shakhmurat Mutalip, really?

Photo of Shakhmurat Mutalip from an official biography.

The Right Side of the Tracks

Born in 1990, Mutalip was raised by his mother and grandmother and attended School No. 6 in Kazcik, a village west of Almaty’s airport.

Two teachers at the school told The Diplomat he was the only student in his cohort and the three preceding years to receive the state-awarded Altyn Belgi medal for excellence.

His close friend, Darkhan Kyzaibayev (far left in the photo), now his deputy at the boxing federation, nearly matched the achievement.

Together they were part of a celebrated graduating class that also included Kudrat Shamiev (second from left in the top photo), now Integra’s supervisory board chairman and the head of the national taekwondo federation, and Zhankosh Turarov, a famous professional boxer.

Darkhan Kyzaibayev is club president of FC Ordabasy, a club Shakhmurat Mutalip reportedly purchased this year. Photo from FC Ordabasy’s website.

In 2018, after the group had made their first money in business, they refurbished the school library. Now they are returning to build a sports facility, the teachers said.

Media coverage has framed Mutalip’s rise as part of a broader shift from “Old Kazakhstan,” dominated by figures linked to former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to a “New Kazakhstan” under Tokayev, widely seen as accelerating after the bloody, regime-rattling unrest of January 2022.

In November, Bloomberg described Mutalip’s purported bid for a mining company, Kazzinc, as part of a trend wherein “construction tycoons” are shifting into mining, “underlining how new money is edging out interests connected to the country’s previous president.”

But the available evidence raises doubts over whether Mutalip could have been described as either a “tycoon,” or “new money,” until very recently. 

In addition to a majority stake in Kazzinc, Mutalip is reportedly angling for a minority stake in Eurasian Resources Group (ERG). Together, the companies produce zinc, gold, lead, copper, ferrochrome, and a range of critical minerals at the center of the global scramble to secure supply chains.

The proposed deal for Kazzinc, currently controlled by Glencore, has been valued at $4 billion and over in press reports.

During an interview with journalist Vadim Boreiko’s popular YouTube channel, Giperborey, former prime minister-turned government critic Akezhan Kazhegeldin questioned how “a boy from Integra who couldn’t tell zinc from silver” could be involved in such talks.

Bloomberg reported on Mutalip’s acquisition of Altynalmas for an undisclosed fee in March 2026.

Discussions around a potential stake in ERG, which is 40 percent owned by the Kazakh state, have reportedly exceeded $1 billion, though it remains unclear how either deal would be financed. ERG itself carries debt to sanctioned Russian banks, reportedly serviced under a U.S. OFAC exemption.

While talks around ERG and Kazzinc have drawn international attention, Mutalip’s company, Central Asia Resources Holding Ltd, in March announced the acquisition of another major mining company, Altynalmas, with little prior reporting. In 2024, Altynalmas produced nearly 16 tonnes of gold ahead of record prices last year. 

In February the company held a press tour of one of Kazakhstan’s largest gold mills, which it said had been completed recently, with $266 million in investments. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed. Central Asia Resources Holding Ltd was contacted for comment. 

Changing of the Guard?

Mutalip assumed ownership of Integra Construction KZ at a time when he was chairman of its supervisory board and while the company’s owner – Orifdzhan Shadiev – was under pressure from creditors and liquidators.

Unlike Mutalip, Shadiev is a long-established figure in Kazakhstan’s business elite, often appearing in local Forbes lists that have so far ignored the former. 

Orifdzhan Shadiev. Screenshot taken from Kaztag.kz

His uncle, Patokh Chodiev, an Uzbekistan-born Belgian national and former Soviet diplomat, founded Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (now ERG) with his now deceased partners Alexander Mashkevitch and Alijan Ibragimov.

The “troika,” as they came to be known, are symbols of the country’s first post-Soviet business elite.

Integra originated as a track repair subsidiary of the state rail company, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, before passing into Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation – then FTSE-listed – only to be sold by the group in 2012 to Shadiev.

Mutalip acquired Integra in a series of transactions beginning in 2021 that were later challenged in court as sham arrangements designed to shield Shadiev’s assets.

At the center of the activity was a company........

© The Diplomat