Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government on Tuesday to extract greater tax revenue from the mining sector which, he said, was profiting from higher metals prices.
The energy-rich Central Asian country, which has weathered its worst bout of unrest since it gained independence from the Soviet Union three decades ago, is the world's top global producer of uranium and has large deposits of copper, iron ore and zinc.
The price of uranium, the metal that fuels nuclear power plants, jumped last week after the unrest in Kazakhstan that was initially sparked by protests against an increase in fuel prices but later widened into what the authorities have since called an attempted coup.
"The income of firms in the mining sector has grown against the backdrop of higher prices for raw materials," Mr Tokayev told parliament on Tuesday.
"I am ordering the government to come up with a plan [to bring] additional revenue to the budget. In exchange, we can provide large incentives for the exploration and development of new deposits for large mining and other companies."
Mr Tokayev did not provide additional details on the initiative or the incentives that might be given to mining companies, nor did he say when the measure might come into force.
It was not immediately clear how his plan might affect foreign mining and commodity companies that do business in Kazakhstan, including Glencore, Rio Tinto and French nuclear fuel company Orano.
National mining company Kazatomprom, the world's biggest uranium producer, said last week that its operations and exports were not affected by the unrest, which the authorities said had since been brought under control.
Russia announced a similar mining tax measure last year, imposing higher taxes on metals producers to attract more budget revenue.
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Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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