The former Soviet republic, which became independent when the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991, is developing a liberal market economy while keeping a tight lid on political freedom. As a major hydrocarbons producer, Kazakhstan already figures in both Russian and Western strategic resource calculations in Central Asia.

Spectral Capital Corp., which has headquarters in Seattle, announced it signed a letter of intent to acquire the gold mine but didn't identify the site.

"We believe that this massive resource is already in production and has all the permits required by Kazakh authorities," said Spectral Capital Chief Executive Officer Jenifer Osterwalder. "This resource is substantially larger even than our existing Chita region properties," she said, referring to a Russian mine the company bought into earlier in the year.

Osterwalder said the mine owners, whom she didn't identify, were attracted to "our ability to commit to and raise substantial capital for the full exploitation of this enormous resource for our mutual benefit."

Spectral is engaged in due diligence on the mine and expects to close the acquisition early in 2011, "provided that the due diligence process validates the size and scope of the gold resource," the company said in a statement.

In June, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev told a conference he plans to boost gold production in the country to more than 70 tons by 2015 from about 20 tons at present.

He said the plans meant that Kazakhstan looked to becoming "one of the world's larger producers of the metal."

Spectral Capital has made known its intention to acquire a significant portfolio of properties for mining activities. In September the company bought an interest in mineral properties in Russia.

Spectral owns 47 percent of the license for prospecting, exploration and production of gold and all other metals in the Mogochinsky district of the Chita region, a harsh Siberian territory with a varied natural environment, which has several gold mines in production.

Chita is in the Eastern Transbaikal area east of Lake Baikal and borders Buryat, Yakutia, Irkutsk and Amur regions, Mongolia and China.

The company has the 18,200-hectare license up to Aug. 31, 2031.

Kazakhstan has several significant gold deposits in a variety of geological environments. Statistics released in recent months estimated Kazakhstan's gold reserves could be the third largest reserves in the former Soviet Union after Russia and Uzbekistan.

At least 60 percent of the reserves are part of rich veins in rock or earth formations, while the rest are part of polymetallic deposits.

Kazakhstan has been producing gold by extracting most of it from other metal ores but is now pushing for more efficient methods of production. Analysts said, unless techniques were modernized, only about 40 percent of the reserves could be exploited without mining companies suffering losses on extraction, production and overhead costs.

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