ArcelorMittal mine accident kills three

Production and Markets

Publishing Date: 29 Jun 2009 11:28am GMT
Author: Mining Journal

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the Kazakh unit of the world’s largest steelmaker, said an accident at its Tentekskaya coal mine killed three workers.

The deaths, from “methane emission,” occurred yesterday at the company’s Tentekskaya mine in central Kazakhstan, ArcelorMittal Temirtau said in an e-mailed statement today.

Another worker is hospitalized with “heavy injuries,” it said. “We all feel deep mourning about the accident at the mine,” Frank Pannier, chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal Temirtau, said in the statement.

Kazakhstan’s government said on Feb 19 last year that it ordered ArcelorMittal to improve safety or lose permits to operate after an explosion at its Abaiskaya mine killed 30 workers. A blast at its Lenin mine in the same region, southeast of the capital Astana, killed 41 in September 2006.

The company invested US$150 million last year, more than in previous years, upgrading equipment at its coal mines, it said in today’s statement.

June 29 (Bloomberg)