On October 28, 2023, an explosion at Kostenko Mine in Karaganda killed 46 workers. As the largest industrial accident since Kazakhstan independence, this deeply shook Kazakhstan to its core and resulted in the nationalization of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, who owned the mine. The effects of this accident were most deeply felt in Karaganda, a region and city, which has long stood as the center of coal mining in the country.

Coal and Repression: The History of Karaganda

Located in the center of Kazakhstan, the city of Karaganda from which Karaganda region gets its name, is deeply intertwined with the coal and metallurgical industries. According to legends, coal was first discovered in the area in 1833 by a local shepherd boy named Appak Baizhanov. In the following decades, a mining settlement would appear in the region owned by the Russian merchant, Nikon Ushakov. The mines would then be sold to British investors in 1905, who controlled them until the Red Army entered the region in 1920.

Due to the destruction caused by the Russian Civil War, the early Soviet Government left the coal reserves of the Karaganda Basin untouched for nearly a decade. In 1929, a directive from Moscow about the creation of trust to exploit the coal reserves of Kazakhstan would bring renewed interest to the region. A subsequent decree in 1931 established a separated trust for Karaganda which was to become the “third coal base” of the Soviet Union. The previous coal bases were located in Donets in the Ukrainian SSR, and Kuznetsk in the Russian SFSR. Finally, in February of 1934, Karaganda was given the status of a city and would serve as the administrative center for mining in the region.

Administrative building of Karlag; image: TCA, Joseph Anderson

The establishment of Karaganda enticed many workers and specialists from all over the Soviet Union to move to the region. However, not everyone sent to the region came voluntarily, since during the same period the coal trust was being established for Karaganda, the infamous Karlag was being set up by the NKVD. The Karaganda Corrective Labor Camp better known as Karlag was one of the largest GULAG camps; the famous author and dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, was sent to Karlag for a brief period. Besides GULAG prisoners, whole ethnic groups, such as Volga Germans, Chechens, and Ingush were forcibly deported to the region during World War II. These deportations as well as imprisoned intellectuals at Karlag would have a lasting impact on the city, making it one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the Kazakh SSR in addition to having very well staffed universities.

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Karaganda stood as the second most populated city in the Kazakh SSR, only behind the capital of Alma-Ata. In 1960, the first and only blast furnace operating in Central Asia was constructed in Temirtau. It would be at this metallurgical plant that the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev would begin his career. By 1978, miners in Karaganda had produced one billion tons of coal, which secured its place as the industrial center of the Kazakh SSR and the third coal base of the Soviet Union. However, with the collapse of the USSR, economic conditions in the region went down drastically and contributed to the mass migration away from the region and city. This period also saw the closure of many mines which left many miners, the lifeblood of the city, with fewer and fewer opportunities each year.

The Akim of Karaganda; image: TCA, Joseph Anderson

ArcelorMittal: Saving Grace?

ArcelorMittal Temirtau (AMT) was the Kazakhstani branch of ArcelorMittal, a mining and steel company based in Luxembourg and owned by Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal. The poor economic conditions in Kazakhstan after the collapse of the Soviet Union made the 1995 purchase of the metallurgical plant in Temirtau by Ispat international, which would later become ArcelorMittal, seem like a saving grace. However, the purchase of these facilities by Mittal did not come without scrutiny. Mittal initially did not want to purchase the facilities but was personally urged by then President Nazarbayev to purchase the plant. AMT would continue its expansion into Kazakhstan by buying mines in the Karaganda region throughout the 90s and 2000s. While the purchase of these facilities did save the facilities from closures, such as the metallurgical plant which was in nearly $700 million in debt at the time of its purchase^, safety violations and anger from miners over poor compensation plagued the company for a large period of its operation. A series of fatal accidents at three AMT mines killed over 100 workers in a 30-year period.

Cracked Lenin monument; image: TCA, Joseph Anderson

The first large incident which called into question the safety of mines operated by AMT occurred on September 20, 2006. On this day, the Lenin mine located in Shakhtinsk, a city in the Karaganda region, experienced an explosion that killed 41 miners. A government commission after the incident, found the cause of the explosion to be human error due to failure by the management to comply with safety standards and properly operate electrical equipment. Following the incident, miners went on strike to demand better working conditions as well as pay raises. The striking miners were joined by metallurgists in Temirtau who also worked for AMT. Personnel changes occurred at AMT following the incident with the General Director of AMT, and the Executive Director of AMT’s coal department being replaced. The miners also voted to remove Vyacheslav Sidorov, the then head of the miner’s union, from his position due to perceptions that he was too close to the management. The new director’s first move was to increase the salary of miners by 29%; however, the exact terms of the increase got rid of previous bonus and resulted in miner’s actually receiving a lower salary.

Two years later, another industrial accident occurred at the AMT owned Abay mine, killing 30 miners. This accident caused the Prosecutor General’s office to open an investigation into safety violations at all AMT owned mines. Speaking about the conditions in AMT mines, Ainur Kurmanov, a former trade unionist said “Firstly, the equipment in many mines is dilapidated and has not been changed since Soviet times. In fact, Mittal is pursuing a policy of saving money on updating equipment and ensuring labor safety. Plus, degassing is not carried out in the mines. This is a fairly expensive process; special equipment is required and, accordingly, the cost of mined coal increases. In this regard, Mittal has taken the path of reducing financial costs and degassing is not carried out.”

Others blamed local corruption rather than lack of funds invested by AMT as the cause for such incidents, with Natalya Tomilova, head of the Committee for Miners’ Families, telling EurasiaNet that “Lakshmi Mittal is fulfilling his commitments to us; he allocates huge sums but it’s being stolen here. Now we’ll see how the commitments are fulfilled at Abay mine.”

In the following decade, small accidents would continue to occur at AMT mines. The poor pay and unsafe conditions at these mines led to a sit in strike by miners on December 11, 2017. According to the Minister of Labor, more than 600 workers at various mines in Karaganda stayed unground rather than returning to the surface after their shifts. The miners demanded a 100% pay increase and improved working conditions. While these demands might seem unreasonable, financial reports from 2014 showed that even though profits for AMT decreased in 2013, top managers were still receiving almost 50 times the pay of miners. AMT would pursue legal means to disrupt the strike, and the courts later declared the strike illegal and urged the workers to return to the surface. In an interview with the BBC, Tomilova mentioned that other methods were being used to the break the strikes, “One [miner] was told: ‘if you don’t come out, we will put a debt on you for 2-3 million tenge, (at the time worth $6,000-$9,000) and you will pay.”^[1] The miners eventually resurfaced and received a 30% increase in pay. Despite continued accidents and strikes, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan reported in 2022 that over 2,000 safety violations were detected at AMT facilities that year.

Karaganda Independence Monument; image: TCA, Joseph Anderson

The beginning of the end of AMT

While the explosion at the Kostenko mine on October 28, 2023, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the question of nationalizing AMT was brought up before this incident. An accident on August 17, of the same year at Kazakhstanskaya mine which killed five workers seems to have been when officials first brought up the question. Finally, after the explosion at the Kostenko mine, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke to the public at a meeting saying, “I have ordered to stop investment cooperation with AMT. The company turned out to be the worst in our history in terms of collaboration between the government and the enterprise.” The nationalization of AMT – which was renamed Qarmet – did little to quell the majority of the public, especially those most deeply affected by the tragedy.

During the same meeting in which Tokayev called AMT the worst company in the country’s history, he was heckled by the crowd over the role of corruption in such incidents. On the day following the accident, the Ministry of Culture and Information recommended closing comments on press releases about the tragedy^. Eventually, in January 2024, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Kazakhstan said that, “The investigation into the explosions at the Kostenko mine, which killed 46 miners, is being completed. Nine mine officials have been recognized as suspects and arrested.” Qarmet said it would stop production in the mine until risks were completely eliminated. Despite this, on May 2, 2024, another disastrous accident almost happened at the Kostenko mine when a conveyor belt caught fire; however, luckily, due to the quick actions of a worker, the fire was able to be contained.

A monument to the victims of this tragedy was erected on the territory of the mine on August 20. The opening was attended by families and colleagues of the victims, as well as the management of Qarmet.

It is hard to tell what the future of coal mining in Karaganda will be, especially if local corruption was the true reason behind such a history of mining incidents. The change in management may do little to stop their frequent occurrences. However, something must be done to either improve the working conditions for miners or quickly transition the country away from coal. Earlier this year, TCA reported that coal accounts for 70% of energy generated in Kazakhstan. Perhaps the upcoming nuclear referendum will help to shift the dangerous burden of powering the country away from coal miners. Until then, Karaganda, the heartland of Kazakhstan, will continue to be a place where workers descend into the bowels of the Earth, risking life and limb to keep Kazakhstan alive with electricity.