The death toll in a coal mine fire in central Kazakhstan has risen to 33, authorities said on October 28, adding that the chances of survival are slim for another 13 people who remained missing.
Some 252 people were underground at the Kostenko mine in the Qaraghandy region when the fire struck, said the operating company ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steel producer.
Hours later, authorities said an evacuation had been ordered after a fire broke out but that an explosion occurred before many workers could be led away. The blast could be felt more than 2 kilometers away, rescue official Gennady Silinsky told a news briefing.
Following the deadly incident, Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev ordered his government to end “investment cooperation” with the steel giant and take control of the local branch of the company, ArcelorMittal Temirtau.
Within hours, ArcelorMittal --- which operates around a dozen mines in Kazakhstan -- confirmed it had signed a preliminary deal on the nationalization of its mining operations in the country.
"ArcelorMittal can confirm that the two parties have...recently signed a preliminary agreement for a transaction that will transfer ownership to the Republic of Kazakhstan," the global steel giant said in a statement.
A photograph taken on October 28 shows a view of the Kostenko ArcelorMittal coal mine in the Qaraghandy region of northwestern Kazakhstan.
The company said it "will commit to finalizing this transaction as soon as possible.”
The office of Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General announced a probe into potential safety violations in the Kostenko coal mine.
It was the second deadly incident at an ArcelorMittal site in Kazakhstan this year, after five miners were killed in an accident at a mine in the same region in August.
SEE ALSO: Is Indian Steel Giant ArcelorMittal Running Out Of Roll In Kazakhstan?ArcelorMittal's operations in the resource-rich Central Asian country have regularly been accused by authorities of failing to respect safety and environmental regulations.
After the August incident at an ArcelorMittal coal mine, Toqaev denounced the "systemic character" of accidents involving the company that he said left more than 100 people dead in Kazakhstan since 2006.
In December 2022, Astana had 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.