Kostenko Coal Mine

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Kostenko Coal Mine (Костенко) is an operating coal mine in Karaganda, Karaganda Urban, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Kostenko Coal Mine	Karaganda, Karaganda Urban, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.859567, 73.113928 (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	–	1942	–

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*	1282

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
38	2021	664	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
ROM	1.7	–	–	2*	–	–	–	–	–

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 Kostenko Coal Mine (шахта Костенко) 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.

Incidents

Fire broke out at the mine on October 28th 2023, killing 46 people, the worst accident in the central Asian country’s post-Soviet history. 28 people received serious injuries. This has prompted the nationalisation of the company. 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. In December 2023, ArcelorMittal completed the sale of ArcelorMittal Temirtau to the Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (‘QIC’), a state-controlled direct investment fund. 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.

Court hearings about the accident will commence in March 2025. 10 people were being charged. Following a meeting of the Government Commission, 100% of the employer's fault was determined and 19 responsible persons who violated safety requirements were identified. In August 2025, a first-instance court found all ten defendants guilty. Mine director received eight years in a minimum-security facility. The appellate court upheld the verdict in full. The defendants subsequently filed a cassation appeal.

Operations

Coal production in 2017 was was 1.7 Mt. In the first half of 2020, the mine produced 1 million tonnes. In August 2021 it was announced that a new longwall with 0.9Mt of capacity was launched. In June 2023, it was reported that the mine is working a longwall 48К3 where monthly production is about 53,000 tonnes. (annual equivalent is about 0.64 Mt).

Following the accident in October 2023, the mine's operations was restored in February 2024. However just a month before it was prohibited to restart production. The emergency longwall has been dismantled and isolated. One longwall was operational as of October 2024 and the company planned to launch the second longwall in April 2025. According to Qarmet, some investments have been carried out to increase the safety of the mine such as the positioning system, video surveillance, early degassing of coal seams, ventilation, improvement of the gas analysis system.

In June 2025, a new longwall was launched with coal reserves reported at between 700,000 and 1 million tonnes.

Qarmet Company

Coal production by former 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 Kostenko mine 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
M1434.B1	mine boundary	underground	Kostenko mine boundary	extracted	2025-07-01 00:00:00
M1434.P1	ventilation system	vent	ventilation shaft	extracted	GEP 3/2023
M1434.P2	ventilation system	shaft	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	GEP 3/2023
M1434.P3	other	shaft	possible mine entrance/exit shaft/slope	extracted	GEP 4/2023
M1434.P4	other	shaft	possible shaft	extracted	GEP 4/2023
M1434.P5	other	shaft	possible shaft	extracted	GEP 4/2023
M1434.P6	other	shaft	shaft	extracted	GEP 4/2023
M1434.P7	other	shaft	possible shaft	extracted	GEP 4/2023

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
M1434.B1	The Kostenko 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). The boundary was extracted from 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. Along the northwestern edge of the boundary, there are overlaps with contract objects numbers 472, 421 and 669. The boundary is based on object 144, issued May 12 1997, of work type 'contracts mountain'. In pgs 4-5 of Appendix 2 of the hearings of the Environmental Impact Assessment on the mining plan of Kostenko mine from 3/2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20250702191012/https://www.gov.kz/uploads/2021/3/6/8b8e5ffe5cc50551785d3490c6c1b385_original.369812.pdf, the dimensions of the combined mine field are given as 4200-7700m x 2500-5000m (10.5 sq km - 38.5 sq km). The area of the extracted boundary is 26.2 sq km which lies within this range.
M1434.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1434.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1434.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1434.P4	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1434.P5	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1434.P6	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1434.P7	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.

Methane Plumes Detected Nearby

Global Energy Monitor researchers analyze satellite-detected methane plumes in order to determine whether they have been observed at or near the site of GEM energy assets. The satellite data provider creates imagery of individual methane plumes and estimates their emission rates at the time of observation. GEM has reviewed many of these plume detections against Google Earth imagery and GEM’s own energy infrastructure tracker data. The following table lists methane plumes which are associated with the energy asset or facility based on distance and manual review. (A full description of the analysis process is available in the Global Methane Emitters Tracker methodology wiki page.)

Table M1: Plume details

For additional details on this individual plume identification and others, see the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Observation date	Satellite data provider	Location of plume origin	Methane emissions rate	Additional plume information
2023-04-04T09:07:48+00	CarbonMapper, emi20230404t090748p06067-E	49.84104, 73.0973	2630.356 kg/hr	Qaraghandy Region Methane Observation 2023-04-04, 1
2023-08-20T05:24:00+00	CarbonMapper, emi20230820t052400p04005-B	49.84112, 73.09775	1729.342 kg/hr	Qaraghandy Region Methane Observation 2023-08-20, 1
2025-07-12T06:51:05+00	CarbonMapper, tan20250712t065105c33s4001-C	49.85, 73.12158	274.4747 kg/hr	Qaraghandy Region Methane Observation 2025-07-12, 1
2025-07-12T06:51:05+00	CarbonMapper, tan20250712t065105c33s4001-A	49.84072, 73.09858	855.2828 kg/hr	Qaraghandy Region Methane Observation 2025-07-12, 2

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.