Uzbekistan has rolled out the welcome mat for Indian businesses with a clear pitch: the country ranks among the world’s top ten for reserves of gold, copper, and uranium, and it wants New Delhi to bring capital and technology to help develop them. The invitation came at the India-Uzbekistan Economic Forum in New Delhi, where Uzbek Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Laziz Kudratov laid out opportunities in copper processing, steel production, and rare earth refining.
Bilateral trade surpassed the $1.3 billion mark for the first time in 2025, a 30% jump from the previous year. Kudratov set the target at $2 billion by 2026 and $3–5 billion in subsequent years. Around 400 Indian companies are already operating in Uzbekistan, with a joint project portfolio exceeding $5 billion. The figures point to a relationship that is already solid, though still unbalanced: Tashkent imports far more from India than it exports.
On the uranium front, the picture is particularly significant for the nuclear sector. Uzbekistan produces approximately 4,000 tonnes of uranium per year, a volume that has remained stable in recent years. The Nurlikum Mining joint venture — involving Navoiyuran, French group Orano, and Japan’s ITOCHU — is already moving ahead with the development of the South Djengeldi deposit in the Navoi region, with average expected output of 500 tonnes annually over a decade. India has prior experience sourcing uranium from this part of the world, having previously received supplies from Uzbekistan, and is now looking to further diversify away from Kazakhstan, which currently accounts for roughly 80% of its uranium needs.
The strategic backdrop explains why New Delhi is eyeing Tashkent with growing interest. China accounted for between 60% and 81% of India’s permanent magnet imports by value between 2022 and 2025. To reduce this exposure, India has launched its National Critical Mineral Mission and has already secured lithium exploration rights in Argentina. Uzbekistan, rich in rare earths, tungsten, molybdenum, lithium, and graphite, fits neatly into this diversification strategy as a geographically convenient piece of the puzzle: it lies along the North-South Transport Corridor, and connectivity into Central Asia also runs through the port of Chabahar.
The real challenge, however, is not extraction — it is transformation. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan currently lack commercial-scale rare earth separation and refining capacity. Bringing not just mining investment but also downstream processing facilities to Uzbekistan would represent the true leap forward for both countries. If India and Uzbekistan can build integrated supply chains — from extraction to refining through to alloy production — the partnership could genuinely reshape global critical raw material dynamics, uranium included.
