ASTANA(BullionStreet): Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan produced 40 tons of gold last year, up 8.6 percent from 2011, said Kazakh Statistics Agency.

In a report, the agency also said country's silver output jumped 48 percent to 963,137 kilograms in the period.

Zinc output was 319,847 tons last year, at the same level as in 2011 while steel production dropped almost 22 percent last year to 3.77 million tons from a year earlier.

Earlier this year, Kazakhstan planned to boost the share of gold in its gold and foreign currency reserves to 20 percent from 14-15 percent.

The central bank currently purchases all of the gold produced in Kazakhstan. Its net gold and foreign currency reserves totaled $34 billion.

In 2011, Kazakhstan produced 36,670 tonnes of raw gold, which is 21.1% greater than in 2010.