Kuzembaev Coal Mine

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Kuzembaev Coal Mine (Кузембаева) is an operating coal mine in Aktas, Bukhar-Zhyrau, Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Kuzembaev Coal Mine	Aktas, Bukhar-Zhyrau, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.805879, 72.966106 (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	–	1959	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
1.36	1.1	2024	Underground	Longwall	–	600	1350

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
19	2021	512	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
Saleable	–	–	–	–	0.8*	–	1*	1.1*	–

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 Kuzembaev Coal Mine (Шахта им. Кузембаева) is a 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.

The mine was established in 1959. Later in 1998, 50-letiya USSR mine was merged with Kuzembaeva mine. The eastern part of the mine borders with Karaganda City.

Following the tragic accident at Kostenko coal mine on 28 October 2023 killing 45 people, 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, on closing ArcelorMittal has received consideration of $286 million and a further $250 million as repayment of outstanding intra-group dues. ArcelorMittal will also receive an additional sovereign-fund guaranteed payment of $450 million, paid in four equal annual instalments, as repayment of an intra-group loan. The new owners 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.

Operations

A new longwall was launched in the mine 2020 with capacity of 0.8 million tonnes. In 2020 a summary of the public consultation on the environmental assessment of the mine's operations was released. In December 2021 the operations at the mine were suspended following the tragic incident at Abayskaya coal mine a month earlier. However it was anticipated that necessary repairs would be completed by January 2022. In June 2022 following a review of the safety of the Kuzembaev mine, 178 instances of non-compliance were detected, these were discussed with the company with a view to correct them. As of August 2021, production since the beginning of the year was said to have reached 0.533 million tonnes.

In June 2023, a media source reported that the Kuzembaev mine was mining in the most powerful longwall in the company, with 110,000 tonnes per month. The second longwall of the Kuzembaev mine has a longwall load of 48,000 tonnes per month. A video report from September 2023 referred to the mine's capacity of 1.7 Mt per annum.

The mine celebrated 65 years of operations in April 2024. It planned to produce 1.1 million tonnes in 2024.

In June 2025, a new ventilation shaft of over 500 metres depth was under construction at the mine, intended to provide access to coal reserves of over 22 million tonnes in new seams. Also two additional longwalls were planned for launch at the mine in July–August 2025, which would bring all eight Qarmet coal mines to full production capacity from August 2025.

In August 2025, AI-based automated hoisting equipment was installed at the mine as part of Qarmet's company-wide modernisation programme.

Qarmet Company

In 2024, the new entity Qarmet (former ArcelorMittal) 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
M1437.B1	mine boundary	underground	Kuzembaev Coal Mine boundary	extracted	9/2020 and 4/2025
M1437.P1	ventilation system	vent	ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1437.P2	ventilation system	shaft	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1437.P3	degasification system	drainage station	gas drainage station	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1437.P5	other	slope access or production shaft	possible mine production shaft	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1437.P6	degasification system	drainage station	gas drainage station	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1437.P7	ventilation system	vent	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	2025-05-26 00:00:00
M1437.P8	other	shaft	Mine shaft	extracted	2025-05-26 00:00:00
M1437.P9	other	shaft	Mine shaft	extracted	2025-05-26 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 Apr 14, 2025

ID	Notes
M1437.B1	The Kuzembaev 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 and based on object 144, issued May 12 1997, of work type 'contracts mountain' for AselorMittal Temirtau LLP. Note that another smaller contracts boundary is contained within this boundary, for JSC UD Arcelor Mittal Temirtau. The south western edge of the boundary overlaps with the north eastern boundary of the Saranskaya mine. The area of the boundary is 33 sq km.
M1437.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P5	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P6	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P7	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P8	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1437.P9	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
2025-07-12T06:51:05+00	CarbonMapper, tan20250712t065105c33s4001-D	49.81666, 73.01569	444.6044 kg/hr	Qaraghandy Region Methane Observation 2025-07-12, 3

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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.