Kazakhstanskaya Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

Global coal mines Coal mines in China Coal mines in India Coal mines in the United States Coal mines in Australia Coal mines in Russia Coal mines in Indonesia

Related-articles:

Largest coal mines in the world Coal mine impacts from Covid-19 Environmental issues of coal Coal mining Coal reserves Coal terminals

Kazakhstanskaya Coal Mine (Казахстанская) is an operating coal mine in Shakhtinsk, Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Kazakhstanskaya Coal Mine	Shakhtinsk, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.75044, 72.563474 (exact)

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

Loading map...

{"type":"SATELLITE","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":16,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":49.75044,"lon":72.563474,"icon":"","inlineLabel":"Mothballed Mine\n"}]}

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating		1969	–

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	2024	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
36	–	337	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 Kazakhstanskaya Coal Mine (шахта Казахстанская) is an underground coal mine in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan. It used to be owned and operated by ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC, the Kazakh subsidiary of ArcelorMittal. It is 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, 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, on closing ArcelorMittal has received consideration of $286 million and a further $250 million as repayment of outstanding intra-group dues. ArcelorMittal will also receive an additional sovereign-fund guaranteed payment of $450 million, paid in four equal annual instalments, as repayment of an intra-group loan. The new owners 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 2017, 3 miners die due to gas and coal burst.

On August 17, 2023, a conveyor belt in the mine caught fire in the workings of the D6 coal slope. 227 people were in the mine, of which 222 were evacuated. 13 people were injured, 5 people died. ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC was found guilty of the accident. As of October 2023, the fire still continued in the mine, destroying equipment and resulting in rock collapses. Extinguishing the fire may take up to a year. Special teams in the mine were trying to extinguish the fire in extremely difficult and dangerous conditions. Blocking walls were being installed made of special gypsum, 25 such walls were installed already. They are meant to prevent the access of oxygen to the areas with fire. It was anticipated that there will be no production in the mine while the fire continues and for at least one year. 40% of workers were to remain employed while the rest were to be transferred to other entities of ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC.

Operations

Information on the mine's operations is very limited. In 2020, production was reported at 1.17 million tonnes and there was a plan to increase production to 1.8Mt by 2026. In the second half of 2023 and most of 2024, the mine was not producing.

In February 2025, Qarmet reported that the area affected by the fire (as much as 40 kilometers of mine workings) has been isolated. To prevent new accidents, the mine is installing a state-of-the-art nitrogen system that neutralizes the explosive environment, minimizing the risk of fire. In November 2024, mining was resumed at one of the longwalls of another seam and the miners are preparing to launch other longwalls with total reserves of 2.5 million tons of coal. These projects will start in 2026 and 2027. Planned production for 2025 was said to be 0.8 Mt. The mine's status was therefore revised from 'Mothballed' to 'Operating'.

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 may close. Kazakhstanskaya was mentioned as 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.