Ex-manager blames deadly accident on Mittal’s “scorched earth” policy  

A former manager at ArcelorMittal Temirtau has warned that more deadly accidents are likely at the coal mining and steel complex because “things have been neglected for too long”. 

On Saturday the enterprise saw the deadliest accident since it was taken over by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal’s ArcelorMittal in 1995. Following the accident, which killed 46 miners, the Kazakh government announced AMT’s nationalisation. 

“Lakshmi Mittal usually leaves scorched earth after himself. For sure, there will be more accidents at ArcelorMittal Temirtau,” MP Arman Kalykov, who headed AMT’s coal department in 2021-2022, told Exclusive.kz. 

He accused AMT of a policy of firing, “under various pretexts”, or restricting the remit of managers who spoke out about the lack of investment in production and shortages of qualified specialists and equipment.  

Kalykov said that Mittal “has never been interested in creating a flourishing enterprise in Kazakhstan”. 

“ArcelorMittal has already left scorched earth behind itself in Algeria and Poland, and is doing the same in Kazakhstan,” he said. 

“There is a lot of work to do now (after nationalisation). The first five-six years are going to be very hard. Until we have sorted out the mess left by the foreign investor there might be more accidents,” Kalykov said. 

“It is a huge industrial complex which cannot be ‘healed’ quickly. Everything has been neglected for too long, there has hardly been any investment in production,” he added. 

Kalykov also said that parliament will have to introduce legal changes to allow government better control over the mining industry in general, which government bodies can’t do at the moment because of the moratorium on inspecting private businesses.  

By Merey Sugirbayeva 

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