Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After the second mine fire since August at an Arcelor-Mittal site in Kazakhstan, which claimed 32 lives, the Central Asian nation has terminated “cooperation” with the multinational steel behemoth headed by billionaire Laxmi Mittal.
In August, five miners were killed in an accident at a mine in the same region, the media reported on Saturday.
In the latest disaster, at least 32 people were killed on Saturday when a fire broke out at a mine in Kazakhstan belonging to the global steel giant ArcelorMittal, prompting the government to order an “end to investment cooperation” with the company.
“At the Kostyenko mine as of 4 pm (1000 GMT) the bodies of 32 people have been found,” the emergency situations ministry said in a statement. “The search for 14 miners is continuing.”
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said that steel giant ArcelorMittal was the “worst company in our history” after a fire at a mine owned by the Luxembourg-listed group killed many.
“This company has turned out to be the worst in our history from the point of view of cooperation with the government,” President Tokayev said as he met with relatives of the victims in the Karaganda region, where the disaster occurred.
“The government has been ordered to end investment cooperation with ArcelorMittal,” he said in a statement shortly after the fire near the town of Karaganda, an industrial region in central Kazakhstan.
ArcelorMittal’s operations in the country have regularly been accused by authorities of failing to respect safety and environmental regulations.
The company said in a statement that at least 21 miners died at the Kostenko mine, and a search was continuing for 23 others who were among more than 200 underground when the fire struck.
Regional officials had said early that 40 rescuers were sent to the site.
No cause of the accident has yet been released.
The fire was the worst mining accident in Kazakhstan since 2006 when 41 miners died at another ArcelorMittal site.
President Tokayev said an investigative commission would be set up to determine the cause.
After the fire at an ArcelorMittal coal mine in August, he denounced the “systemic character” of accidents involving the company that he said left more than 100 people dead since 2006.
ArcelorMittal operates around a dozen mines in the highly polluted industrial region of the vast, resource-rich country, formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Extraction of iron and coal, as well as oil, gas, and uranium, have made its economy the largest in Central Asia, though accidents are common because of aging infrastructure and equipment and lax safety standards.
In December 2022, the government threatened to ban ArcelorMittal from operating in the country after a worker died in what the company called “an accident” at its factory in Termitau.
The death came just a month after five miners were killed at another Arcelor site in the region.