Kostenko Coal Mine

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Kostenko Coal Mine (Костенко) is an operating coal mine in Karaganda, Karaganda Urban, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Kostenko Coal Mine	Karaganda, Karaganda Urban, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.859567, 73.113928 (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		1942	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.5	2023	Underground	Longwall	–	800	1900

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
38	–	739	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 Kostenko Coal Mine (шахта Костенко) 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.

Incidents

Fire broke out at the mine on October 28th 2023, killing 46 people, the worst accident in the central Asian country’s post-Soviet history. 28 people received serious injuries. This has prompted the nationalisation of the company. 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. In December 2023, ArcelorMittal completed the sale of ArcelorMittal Temirtau to the Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (‘QIC’), a state-controlled direct investment fund. 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.

Court hearings about the accident will commence in March 2025. 10 people are being charged. Following a meeting of the Government Commission, 100% of the employer's fault was determined and 19 responsible persons who violated safety requirements were identified.

Operations

Coal production in 2017 was was 1.7 Mt. In the first half of 2020, the mine produced 1 million tonnes. In August 2021 it was announced that a new longwall with 0.9Mt of capacity was launched. In June 2023, it was reported that the mine is working a longwall 48К3 where monthly production is about 53,000 tonnes. (annual equivalent is about 0.64 Mt).

Following the accident in October 2023, the mine's operations was restored in February 2024. However just a month before it was prohibited to restart production. The emergency longwall has been dismantled and isolated. One longwall was operational as of October 2024 and the company planned to launch the second longwall in April 2025. According to Qarmet, some investments have been carried out to increase the safety of the mine such as the positioning system, video surveillance, early degassing of coal seams, ventilation, improvement of the gas analysis system.

Coal production by former 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 Kostenko mine 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. As per August 2024 reporting, on the instructions of the president of Kazakhstan, the operation of all eight mines of Qarmet was restored in the shortest possible time and large-scale work has begun to strengthen industrial safety.

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.