International experts conducted an audit of Qarmet

Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, has conducted an audit of working conditions at Qarmet. As a result, the experts suggested the Kazakhstani company carry out a large-scale modernization of its coal mines, the company said in a statement.

The top priority task is to equip all mines with positioning systems. This will help the company know exactly where its employees are in the mines at every given moment.

In turn, the international auditors have advised Qarmet to establish a central dispatcher service to control these positioning systems dispersed throughout mines. Also, the new service will let the company collect and combine production data, and respond to external factors such as seismic vibrations more rapidly.

According to the experts, even though Qarmet invested a lot of money into its technological equipment many years ago, this equipment is now outdated and doesn’t fit the company’s needs. Moreover, there is no single standard for working conditions at Qarmet. The auditors also said that since 2021, 95% of all incidents in Qarmet’s mines had been related to explosions, fires and gas emissions.

Boston Consulting Group has already reported the results of its survey to Qarmet’s executives. Andrey Lavrentyev, the company’s owner, has instructed his team to form a joint working group to prepare a detailed plan for the coal department modernization that must be completed by 2028. Qarmet will implement international best practices to boost productive capacity and labor safety.

Before December 2023, Qarmet was known as ArcelorMittal Temirtau and was controlled by ArcelorMittal. After two incidents at the Kostenko and Kazakhstanskaya mines last year, when 51 people died, the government bought back the company from ArcelorMittal for $286 million ($986 million if the debt is included). After that, the company was purchased by Lavrentyev, a Kazakhstani businessman.