The authorities had ordered the termination of investment cooperation with this company, and later announced that they were seeking repayment Management of ArcelorMittal‘s local operations for the government.
ArcelorMittal has already confirmed that it has signed a preliminary agreement to nationalize its mining operations in Kazakhstan.
It was the second fatal accident in two months at an ArcelorMittal facility in Kazakhstan, after five miners died in an accident at a mine in the same region in August.
“The government has been instructed to end investment cooperation with ArcelorMittal,” Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said shortly after the fire near Karaganda, an industrial region in central Kazakhstan.
After meeting with victims’ relatives in Karaganda, he said that Luxembourg-listed ArcelorMittal is the worst company in the country’s history.
“From the point of view of cooperation with the government, this company turned out to be the worst in our history,” said K.-J. Tokayev.
Following reports from the country’s government about ongoing “works to return the company to the Republic of Kazakhstan”, the steel giant confirmed in a statement that “both parties (…) recently signed a preliminary agreement on a transaction that will transfer ownership to the Republic of Kazakhstan” and added that they are “committed as soon as possible to complete this transaction.”
Authorities have consistently accused ArcelorMittal of failing to comply with safety and environmental regulations in the country.
More than 200 coal miners were underground when the fire broke out, the company said in a statement.
Regional officials previously said 40 rescuers had been sent to the scene, and the government’s emergency response minister, Syrym Sharipkhanov, said he would be on the scene soon.
The cause of the accident has not yet been announced, the incident will be investigated.
The fire was the worst mining accident in Kazakhstan since 2006, when 41 miners died at another ArcelorMittal facility.
ArcelorMittal operates a dozen mines in a heavily polluted industrial region in the vast, resource-rich country that was formerly part of the Soviet Union.
In December 2022, the government threatened to ban ArcelorMittal from operating in the country after a worker was killed at its Temirtau plant.
It comes just a month after the deaths of five miners at another ArcelorMittal facility in the region.
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