To facilitate exploration, Geological Exploration Centre will be built in Astana by 2015 at Nazarbayev University under the partnership agreement signed on 20 February by the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies, “Kazgeology” National Exploration Company and «Nazarbayev University Research and Innovation System». The Centre will provide infrastructure and state of the art technical facilities for conducting in Kazakhstan and its neighbour counties complex geological and geochemical research and experimental studies of minerals, metals, hydrocarbons and groundwater. The creation of the Centre is expected to significantly reduce the costs of exploration as sample analyses will be carried out locally instead of shipping overseas.