Astana: Kazakhstan said that 32 people were killed in a fire in yet another deadly accident in a mine owned by ArcelorMittal, with over a dozen still missing, in the Central Asian country’s worst disaster in years.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called the Luxembourg-listed ArcelorMittal group the “worst” company “in our history” and ordered his government to take control of the Kazakh branch of the company.
ArcelorMittal has a history of deadly disasters in Kazakhstan and is regularly accused of failing to respect safety and environmental regulations. The fire was one of the deadliest in Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet history and came just two months after five miners were killed in a blast at a site owned by the company.
“This is a tragedy,” Tokayev said as he met with families of the victims in the Karaganda region. He called for a day of national mourning. Tokayev, who has decried ArcelorMittal’s safety record, ordered his government to take control of the mines.
“This company has turned out to be the worst in our history from the point of view of cooperation between a company and the government,” Tokayev said. He asked the deputy governor of the Karaganda region, Vadim Basin - who used to work for ArcelorMittal - to head the company.