Saranskaya Coal Mine

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Saranskaya Coal Mine (Саранская) is an operating coal mine in Saran, Saran Urban, Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Saranskaya Coal Mine	Saran, Saran Urban, Karaganda, Kazakhstan	49.773061, 72.895188 (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	–	1955	–

Table 3: Operation details

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	1.3	2023	Underground	Longwall	–	540	1247

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	513	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	1.57	1.82	–	–	–	–	1.3*	–	–

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 Saranskaya Coal Mine (Шахта Саранская) is an underground coal mine in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan. Karaganda City is located approximately 12 kilometres to the northeast.

The mine used to be owned by ArcelorMittal Temirtau JSC, the Kazakh subsidiary of ArcelorMittal. It is part of ArcelorMittal's Karaganda Mine Complex, which supplies coal to the ArcelorMittal Temirtau steel plant. It merged with the Sokurskaya mine in mid-1997 and the Aktasskaya mine in 1998.

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 became the 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 2016, four miners died when the cable of the trolley broke upon lifting.

In March 2022, another fatality was recorded - a miner died following a collapse in the mine.

Fire was recorded at the mine in August 2023, the same month as the tragic incident at Kazakhstanskaya coal mine took place. Unlike the Kazakhstansaya coal mine, it appeared that there were no casualties and the fire was liquidated.

In March 2024, one worker died during the assembly prior to installation of specialized equipment. In October 2024, 3 miners sustained serious injuries following a rock fall.

Operations

The mine's capacity was said to be 1.8 million tonnes per year. 2018 production reached the same level.

In early 2024, it was planned to mine 1.4 million tonnes in 2024.

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

By 2028, the company planned to produce 9 million tonnes of coal. As per August 2024 reporting, on the instructions of the president of Kazakhstan, the operation of all eight mines of Qarmet was restored in the shortest possible time and large-scale work has begun to strengthen industrial safety.

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 are planned for closure, including Saranskaya.

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
M1436.B1	mine boundary	underground	Saranskaya coal mine boundary	extracted	2021-09-21 00:00:00
M1436.P1	ventilation system	vent	ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1436.P2	degasification system	gas to electric station	possible coal and captured gas electricity generation station	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1436.P3	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1436.P4	ventilation system	shaft	possible ventilation shaft	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1436.P5	degasification system	drainage station	possible gas drainage station	extracted	2024-06-01 00:00:00
M1436.P6	ventilation system	shaft	ventilation shaft	extracted	2023-05-01 00:00:00
M1436.P7	degasification system	drainage station	possible drainage station	extracted	2024-06-01 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 Apr 17, 2025

ID	Notes
M1436.B1	The Saranskaya 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, and described in Mining Data Online 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 JSC ArcelorMittal Temirtau. The north eastern edge of the boundary overlaps with the north eastern boundary of the Kuzembaev mine. According to page 10 of the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT STAGE II report https://web.archive.org/web/20250414203941/https://www.gov.kz/uploads/2021/3/2/0ed3b38d37a767e9488e798f071d82c8_original.3346145.pdf, the land use area of the mine as of 1/1/2019, including sanitary protection zones, was 1727 hectares (17 sq km). The area of the extracted boundary is 35 sq km.
M1436.P1	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1436.P2	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1436.P3	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1436.P4	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1436.P5	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1436.P6	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.
M1436.P7	Identified visually from Google Earth Pro satellite imagery.

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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.