32 miners died in an accident in an ArcelorMittal mine in Kazakhstan this Saturday.
This Saturday, October 28th, 32 people died in a fire in a mine owned by the steel company ArcelorMittal in Kazakhstan.
“At 4:00 p.m. local time (10:00 GMT), the bodies of 32 people were found in the Kostenko mine, the search for 14 miners continues,” the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a statement. The steel giant states that “208 people were brought to the surface.”
One of the deadliest mining accidents
This is the worst mining accident in Kazakhstan since 2006, when 41 miners lost their lives at an ArcelorMittal site, and the second fatal accident in two months for the group, after five miners died in the same region in mid-August.
According to the Kazakh government – which laments the “systemic nature” of the group’s accidents – these accidents “have claimed the lives of more than a hundred people since 2006.”
ArcelorMittal operates around fifteen factories and mines in this extremely polluted industrial zone of this former Soviet republic, which is rich in natural resources. The country is the largest economy in Central Asia and is particularly rich in oil, gas, chromium and coal.
Towards a nationalization of ArcelorMittal
After the tragedy was announced, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev, who went to the scene of the accident at midday, ordered “to end cooperation” with the group. The Kazakh government announced on Saturday that it wanted to “regain control” of the local subsidiary of ArcelorMittal.
““The government has reached a preliminary agreement with the shareholders of ArcelorMittal Temirtau and is completing the transaction to transfer the ownership of the company in favor of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” the Prime Minister said. In a separate statement, he also stressed that he was not thinking of transferring it “to other foreign investors.”