Abayskaya Coal Mine

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Abayskaya Coal Mine (Абайская, Абай) is an operating coal mine in Volny, Abay, Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Abayskaya Coal Mine	Volny, Abay, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.68629, 72.75919 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	1954	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.5	2023	Underground	Longwall	–	500*	935

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
14	2021	221	Karaganda	Bituminous	Met	Steel Plant

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Qarmet JSC [100.0%]	Qazaqstan Steel Group LLP	Kazakhstan

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

Note: The asterisk (*) indicates that the value is an estimated figure based on various factors, including the company's forecasted or reported monthly or quarterly production data, etc.

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
–	–	–	–	–	0.4*	–	0.5	–	–

Note: The above sections were automatically generated and are based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker August 2026 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

The Abayskaya Coal Mine (шахта Абайская) is an UNDERGROUND coal mine in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan. It used to be owned by ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC, the Kazakh subsidiary of ArcelorMittal. It was part of ArcelorMittal's Karaganda Mine Complex, which supplies coal to the ArcelorMittal Temirtau steel plant.

Following the tragic accident at Kostenko coal mine on 28 October 2023 killing 45 people, the Kazakh President ordered his cabinet to stop investment cooperation with ArcelorMittal Temirtau. Arcelor Mittal confirmed on October 28th that they have been in discussions with the government and recently signed a preliminary agreement for a transaction that will transfer ownership of ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC to the Republic of Kazakhstan. The sale was completed in December 2023. Under the terms of the transaction, ArcelorMittal received consideration of $286 million and a further $250 million as repayment of outstanding intra-group dues. ArcelorMittal also received an additional sovereign-fund guaranteed payment of $450 million, paid in four equal annual instalments, as repayment of an intra-group loan. The new owner of the mine complex is Qazaqstan Investment Corporation, as state-owned direct investment fund which is owned by the national holding Baiterek. Subsequently Qazaqstan Steel Group has become a new investor in the facilities of ArcelorMittal Temirtau. Qazaqstan Steel Group is owned by a Kazakh businessman Andrey Lavrentyev. At the same time, ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC was renamed Qarmet.

Incidents

In January 2008, an explosion at the mine killed 30 miners.

In November 2021, operations at Abayskaya mine were suspended due to a methane blast accident which killed six miners and injured two. Operations were meant to remain suspended until the state commission completes its investigation into the incident's causes. In June 2022 it was reported that following an investigation, 200 cases of non-compliance with industrial safety procedures by the company were uncovered. However, later in 2022, the criminal investigation into the incident was closed. According to S&P Global, the suspension of operations should not have affected the 2021-22 production of the mine. Abayskaya has already delivered the volume planned for the full year (2021) of 0.31 million tonnes as of November 2021.

Operations

Later source from September 2022 referred to the mine as non-producing as production preparation was not carried out in time. Another media source from August 2023 stated that the mine was undertaking installation and dismantling work and was planning to commission a new longwall in October 2023. It therefore appeared that indeed the mine was not producing.

Production of the mine was said to increase from 0.46 Mt in 2021 to 0.5 Mt in 2023.

In November 2024, emergency evacuation of the miners was undertaken following a power cut. It was planned to restart operations shortly.

In February 2024, the mine director announced that two new longwalls were being prepared: longwall 321k12, scheduled for launch in January 2025 with reserves of 650,000 tonnes, and longwall 321k18s, planned for commissioning by end of 2025 with reserves of 600,000 tonnes. The mine employed 935 staff, of whom over 750 were miners.

In 2025, automatic fire suppression systems were being installed on conveyor belts at the mine, with monitoring cameras placed every 300 metres along the conveyors.

Qarmet Company

A media report from June 2023 stated that coal production by ArcelorMittal's eight underground mines in Kazakhstan declined from 11 million tonnes in 2015 to 7 million tonnes in 2022, and 4 out of 8 mines were planned for closure, but Abayskaya was not one of them. In 2024, the new entity Qarmet under the new investor and management team extracted 6.5 million tonnes of coal and launched 6 additional longwalls.

In June 2025, Qarmet announced a five-year investment plan of $3.5 billion, of which $300 million was allocated to mine safety, with remaining funds directed at environmental initiatives and production modernisation.

In 2025, Qarmet's Coal Department extracted 7.5 million tonnes of coal across all eight mines.

By 2028, the company planned to produce 9 million tonnes of coal.

Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources

Global Energy Monitor researchers have identified coal mine boundary/boundaries and potential sources of coal mine methane (CMM) for this mine. These research results can be used to drive CMM attribution and mitigation efforts, particularly when combined with remotely sensed methane plume locations and mine ownership data. Explore the results with the embedded map at the top of this page by clicking on the mine boundary polygon or the CMM placemarkers to reveal more details. A detailed description of this research can be found in Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources. This data is also available as a downloadable companion dataset to the Global Coal Mine Tracker and the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Table SMP1: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data

ID	Mine feature category	Mine feature subcategory	Description	Coordinates precision	Data source date
M1435.B1	mine boundary	underground	Abayskaya coal mine boundary	extracted	2025-07-01 00:00:00
M1435.P1	ventilation system	shaft	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1435.P2	ventilation system	shaft	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1435.P3	degasification system	drainage station	gas drainage station	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1435.P4	degasification system	drainage station	gas drainage station	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1435.P5	degasification system	drainage station	possible gas drainage station	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1435.P6	other	shaft	shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1435.P7	other	shaft	shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00

Table SMP2: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data (continued)

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Dec 26, 2025

ID	Notes
M1435.B1	The Abayskaya mine is part of the Karaganda Coal Mines Complex that includes eight underground coal mines and the Vostochnaya coal preparation plant. These mines are: Kostenko, Kuzembaeva, Saranskaya, Abayskaya, Kazakhstanskaya, Lenina, Shakhtinskaya and Tentekskaya coal mines, https://web.archive.org/web/20250207022321/https://miningdataonline.com/property/1772/Karaganda-Coal-Mines-Complex.aspx. Pages 4-5 of Appendix 1 of the public hearings in the form of open meetings on the draft Environmental Impact Assessment for the Mining Plan for the development of coal reserves at the Abayskaya mine for the period up to 2042, from 4/2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20250703133751/https://www.gov.kz/uploads/2021/4/10/b17a033400f3f948ad85772ba135a382_original.5624626.pdf, describes the mining boundaries in terms of coal seams, together with coal field dimensions : area no. 1 4800-6000m x 1050-3000m (5-18 sq km), area no. 2 3600-4000m x 1500-2000m (5-8 sq km) - giving a total coal field dimensions range of approx 10 - 26 sq km. Two adjacent mining contract boundaries for Abayskaya mine can be found using the Unified Platform for Subsoil Use, Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://minerals.e-qazyna.kz/en/contracts-map , both of which are described as object 144, issued May 12 1997, of work type 'contracts mountain'. The northern contracts boundary is used here because it has an approximate area of 21 sq km which is within the coal field's approximate dimensions of 10 - 26 sq km given in the Appendix 1 reference above.
M1435.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1435.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1435.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1435.P4	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1435.P5	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1435.P6	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1435.P7	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.

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Additional data

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