A red star, a distant symbol of Kazakhstan’s Soviet past, is still stuck at the top of the headframe ensuring the descent and ascent of workers at the Kostenko coal mine operated by ArcelorMittal. But 46 miners did not come out alive on Saturday October 28, victims of a firedamp attack and the fire that followed. This heavy toll makes it the deadliest accident in the history of this country, which contains significant natural resources (oil, gas, uranium, coal, iron, gold, etc.), highly coveted by multinationals, notably ArcelorMittal for iron. and coal, TotalEnergies for hydrocarbons and Orano for uranium.
The tragedy pushed the President of the Kazakh Republic to decree a day of national mourning, Sunday October 29, and above all to announce the departure of the Indian Lakshmi Mittal’s group. Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev places all responsibility for the accident on “the worst company in the history of Kazakhstan from the point of view of cooperation with the government”. The Kazakh state has signed a preliminary agreement to take control of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the local subsidiary of the global steel giant, thus eliminating a presence dating back to 1995. The steel and mining group specified on Monday that it committed to carrying out the operation as quickly as possible to reduce production disruptions linked to this departure. At the same time, its share price fell by more than 4% on the Amsterdam stock exchange.
Kazakh public opinion does not accept these mining accidents in a country where hydrocarbons and minerals remain the backbone of the economy. Five deaths at the Shakhtinsk mine in August 2022, five additional deaths at the Lenin mine three months later. The very place where the country’s most serious mining disaster occurred in 2006 (41 deaths) until the accident of October 29. In total, some 200 people are believed to have lost their lives on Kazakh mining sites since the country’s independence.
A departure at 500 million euros
The State accuses the steel group based in Luxembourg of not having applied all safety rules and of operating dilapidated installations. The latter claims on the contrary that he had improved the situation in recent years. The general framework is set by the 1995 Convention on Safety and Health in Mines of the International Labor Organization. A text which provides that “the employer must be required to take all necessary measures to eliminate or reduce to a minimum the risks” : air safety and adequate ventilation, maintenance of structures, land stabilization, prevention of explosions and fires, periodic inspections, etc.
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