Abayskaya Coal Mine

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Abayskaya Coal Mine (Абайская, Абай) is an operating coal mine in Volny, Abay, Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Abayskaya Coal Mine	Volny, Abay, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.68629, 72.75919 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating		1954	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.5	2023	Underground	Longwall	–	500*	*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
14	–	222	Karaganda	Bituminous	Met	ArcelorMittal Temirtau steel plant

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Qarmet JSC	Qazaqstan Steel Group LLP	Kazakhstan

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker April 2024 release and the September supplement.

Background

The Abayskaya Coal Mine (шахта Абайская) is an UNDERGROUND coal mine in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan. It used to be owned by ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC, the Kazakh subsidiary of ArcelorMittal. It was part of ArcelorMittal's Karaganda Mine Complex, which supplies coal to the ArcelorMittal Temirtau steel plant.

Following the tragic accident at Kostenko coal mine on 28 October 2023 killing 45 people, the Kazakh President ordered his cabinet to stop investment cooperation with ArcelorMittal Temirtau. Arcelor Mittal confirmed on October 28th that they have been in discussions with the government and recently signed a preliminary agreement for a transaction that will transfer ownership of ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC to the Republic of Kazakhstan. The sale was completed in December 2023. Under the terms of the transaction, ArcelorMittal received consideration of $286 million and a further $250 million as repayment of outstanding intra-group dues. ArcelorMittal also received an additional sovereign-fund guaranteed payment of $450 million, paid in four equal annual instalments, as repayment of an intra-group loan. The new owner of the mine complex is Qazaqstan Investment Corporation, as state-owned direct investment fund which is owned by the national holding Baiterek. Subsequently Qazaqstan Steel Group has become a new investor in the facilities of ArcelorMittal Temirtau. Qazaqstan Steel Group is owned by a Kazakh businessman Andrey Lavrentyev. At the same time, ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC was renamed Qarmet.

Incidents

In January 2008, an explosion at the mine killed 30 miners.

In November 2021, operations at Abayskaya mine were suspended due to a methane blast accident which killed six miners and injured two. Operations were meant to remain suspended until the state commission completes its investigation into the incident's causes. In June 2022 it was reported that following an investigation, 200 cases of non-compliance with industrial safety procedures by the company were uncovered. However, later in 2022, the criminal investigation into the incident was closed. According to S&P Global, the suspension of operations should not have affected the 2021-22 production of the mine. Abayskaya has already delivered the volume planned for the full year (2021) of 0.31 million tonnes as of November 2021.

Operations

Later source from September 2022 referred to the mine as non-producing as production preparation was not carried out in time. Another media source from August 2023 stated that the mine was undertaking installation and dismantling work and was planning to commission a new longwall in October 2023. It therefore appeared that indeed the mine was not producing.

In September 2024, the Abayskaya mine was operating and preparing to launch a new longwall with 0.6 Mt of resources. In November 2024, emergency evacuation of the miners was undertaken following a power cut. It was planned to restart operations shortly.

Production of the mine was said to increase from 0.46 Mt in 2021 to 0.5 Mt in 2023.

A media report from June 2023 stated that coal production by ArcelorMittal's eight underground mines in Kazakhstan declined from 11 million tonnes in 2015 to 7 million tonnes in 2022, and 4 out of 8 mines were planned for closure, but Abayskaya was not one of them. In 2024, the new entity Qarmet under the new investor and management team extracted 6.5 million tonnes of coal and launched 6 additional longwalls. By 2028, the company planned to produce 9 million tonnes of coal.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.