Mine Disaster
KARAGANDA: Kazakhstan observed nationwide mourning on Sunday as 45 people lost their lives in a fire at an ArcelorMittal mine, marking the worst accident in the country’s post-Soviet history.
This disaster occurred at the Kostenko coal mine in the Karaganda region on Saturday, following a series of deadly incidents at ArcelorMittal mines, leading to the nationalization of the company’s local affiliate.
Kazakhstan’s emergency services announced on social media that they had discovered the bodies of 45 people, with the search for four miners still ongoing.
Moreover, rescuers had earlier warned that the chances of finding the remaining miners alive were very low due to the lack of ventilation and the force of the explosion.
The death toll surpassed a 2006 accident that claimed 41 miners’ lives at another ArcelorMittal site and occurred just two months after another incident that killed five miners.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered the end of cooperation with the Luxembourg-based company, calling ArcelorMittal “the worst enterprise in Kazakhstan’s history in terms of cooperation with the government.”
The Kazakh government and the steel giant announced a preliminary agreement to “transfer ownership of the (local) firm in favor of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”
Flags were flown at half-mast on Sunday to observe the day of national mourning declared by Tokayev.
There were 252 people inside the mine when the fire began, according to ArcelorMittal. Local politicians and relatives of the victims called for the immediate nationalization of the company, demanding accountability for the lack of safety measures.
