Work at Kazakhstan's new Kazchrome mine suspended following fire outbreak - ERG

ASTANA. May 27 (Interfax) - A fire broke out at one of the mines of the Donskoi Mining and Processing Plant (DMPP), a subsidiary of TNK Kazchrome (part of Eurasian Resources Group, ERG), and three people have been hospitalized with burns, ERG told Interfax on Tuesday.

"A short-term combustion incident of the air environment occurred in the extraction block of the Bolashak mine at Donskoi MPP. Three electricians on duty who were installing equipment were injured," the company said.

"Operations at the mine have been temporarily suspended," it said.

This is not the first incident at this mine this year. A fire also broke out in February, leaving four people with burns. At the time of the incident, 228 workers were in the mine, all of whom were brought to the surface.

The Bolashak mine was launched in 2024, with a designed capacity of 7.5 million tonnes of chromium ore per year. The enterprise is developing two deposits - Millionnoye and Almaz-Zhemchuzhina. It is one of the deepest mines in the world and also has the deepest mine shaft in Kazakhstan for ferrous metal extraction - over a kilometer underground.

JSC TNK Kazchrome comprises four structural divisions - DMPP (Aktobe region, Khromtau city), Kazmanganese ore management (Karaganda region), and the Aksu (Pavlodar region) and Aktobe ferroalloy plants.

ERG is one of the world's largest diversified natural resources companies, with fully integrated operations in mining, processing, energy, logistics and marketing.