1. Geostatistics and Geometallurgy:
Focus: Use of geostatistics in combination with geological, mining, metallurgical, and economic data.
Objective: Optimize mineral resource estimation for efficient mine planning.

2. Mine Design and Mining Geotechnics:
Focus: Research on experimental rock mechanics, rock excavations, and emerging mining technologies.
Research Areas:

• Innovative mining systems, rockburst and seismicity, and geotechnical risk modeling.

3. Mineral Processing:
Focus: A new addition to ME's research, focusing on critical raw materials and resource recovery.
Research Areas:

• Extractive metallurgy, circular and sustainable engineering, and urban mining.

4. Mine Ventilation, Sustainable Mining, Environment, Resource Policy, and Mineral Economics:
Focus: Multidisciplinary research intertwining with other areas within ME.
Research Areas:

• Mine ventilation systems, sustainable mining practices, environmental impact assessments, resource policy development, and mineral economics.

1. Fluid Flow in Porous Media:
Focus: Experimental and theoretical studies on Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods.
Research Areas:

• Chemical flooding: Polymer, surfactant, alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP), and nanofluid injection.
• Water-based methods: Smart water, low salinity water, and carbonated water injection.
• Gas-based methods: CO2, miscible gas, foam, aphrons, and Water-Alternating-Gas (WAG) processes.
• In-situ microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR).
• Fluid flow in fractured reservoirs.
• Front detection using tracer and Capacitance Resistive Models (CRM).
• Soil remediation techniques and oil/water separation.

2. Underground Storage of CO2, H2, and Natural Gas:
Focus: Experimental and theoretical research on underground storage technologies.
Research Areas:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Molecular Dynamics (MD), pore-scale modeling, and reservoir-scale simulation.
• Practical and scientific challenges associated with gas storage, including capillary, dissolution, and trapping effects.

3. Flow Assurance and Improved Oil Recovery (IOR):
Focus: Addressing challenges in flow assurance and improving oil recovery techniques.
Research Areas:

• Asphaltene precipitation and deposition, emulsion stability, sand production, and fine migration.
• Water and gas shut-off techniques, drilling mud modifications, and acidizing.
• Application of nanocapsulation.

4. Mathematical Modeling and AI Applications in Petroleum Engineering:
Focus: Application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in petroleum engineering.
Research Areas:

• Reservoir fluid and rock properties, top-down reservoir modeling, drilling, production, and formation evaluation.

5. Digital Core Analysis and Pore-Scale Fluid Flow Studies:
Focus: Digital core analysis and fluid flow studies at the pore scale.
Research Areas:

• High-pressure, temperature-controlled transparent porous media studies.
• Collaboration with Computer Science, Materials Engineering, Physics, and Mathematics departments, as well as national and international partners.

1. Petrology and Historical Geology:
Focus: Study of the genesis and geological setting of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks across Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Southern India, and the Pacific region.
Research Areas:

• Regional evolution of orogens, focusing on the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) and the Himalayas.
• Application of plate tectonics and various analytical tools such as petrochronology, geochemistry, paleogeography, paleomagnetism, and paleoclimatic studies.
• Studies on early Earth crustal processes and Precambrian tectonics.

2. Structural Geology and Stratigraphy:
Focus: Geological mapping and analysis of structural features within sedimentary basins and ore-bearing zones.
Research Areas:

• Micro and macro-structural analyses.
• Mechanical stratigraphy of sedimentary basins.
• Cryo-fracturing analyses in granitic rocks and mineral deformations.

3. Economic Geology and Geo-exploration:
Focus: Evaluation of the occurrences, distribution, and geological setting of various ore deposits in Kazakhstan.
Research Areas:

• Chromite, uranium, copper, gold, and hydrocarbon deposits (coal, petroleum, and natural gas).
• Development of new hybrid methods for the exploration and extraction of critical metals like lithium and rare earth element (REE) bearing minerals.

4. Resource and Risk Management:
Focus: Management of water resources and risk in the petroleum, gas, and mining industries.
Research Areas:

• Hydrogeology of ground and surface waters, including the lakes of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
• Application of remote sensing technology and geographic information systems (GIS) for resource management.
• Geospatial and earth observation remote sensing technologies for risk management in marine and onshore industries.

5. Green Energy and Geo-storage:
Focus: Exploration, exploitation, and storage of natural hydrogen, helium deposits, and geothermal resources in Kazakhstan.
Research Areas:

• Conversion of carbon to solid minerals through reactions with rock-forming minerals to permanently capture excess atmospheric carbon.
• Research aimed at reducing Kazakhstan's carbon footprint through geo-storage solutions.