How to Become a Player in the Global Mineral Trade

Kenges Rakishev, one of the richest men in Kazakhstan, stepped off a private jet at a Soviet-era airport and hopped into the lead car of a convoy of sport utility vehicles. The cars tore down a two-lane road, zipping past the snow-covered steppe in eastern Kazakhstan at 90 miles per hour.

Riding shotgun, Mr. Rakishev gestured toward the vast emptiness.

“Nothing, right?” he said with a chuckle. “But it’s a unique opportunity.”

That opportunity is in nickel, a key mineral used in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies. Kazakhstan, a mineral-rich country in Central Asia, has a lot of nickel, and Mr. Rakishev is investing tens of millions of dollars to extract it.

Mr. Rakishev, 44, is always chasing the next big investment. In February, he was the driving force behind the public offering of a Canadian maker of plant-based instant noodles on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Before that, it was blockchain technology. And before that, it was an Israeli photo-sharing app, called Mobli, that tried to become the next Instagram.

He has connections to Kazakhstan’s ruling elite that are apparent in his energy investments and his purchase of a bank seized by the government. His close ties with a former prime minister of Kazakhstan brought him into the orbit of Hunter Biden, the American president’s son whose business dealings became the focus of an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans.