The fire flared up on Saturday and initially 32 people were reported dead at the Kostenko mine, owned by steel giant ArcelorMittal. Today, the death toll increased to 42. The new figure was confirmed by the ministry for emergencies as rescue teams pulled bodies from the rubble.
The search for the missing 4 miners in the partially destroyed mine continues.
Emergency service teams are searching for miners in two main areas of the wreckage more than 4 kilometres apart.
"The search operation is hampered by the presence of destroyed mining equipment as well as rubble in some places," the ministry said in a statement.
ArcelorMittal Temirtau, the local unit of Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal, said 206 of the 252 people at the Kostenko mine had been evacuated.
The fire, believed to have been caused by a methane explosion, broke out on the same day that a deal to nationalise the company's mining operations in Kazakhstan was approved.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had ordered a halt to investment in the country's largest steel mill before the fire as he pushed for nationalisation.
Describing the incident as a "tragedy" and describing the company's local unit, ArcelorMittal Termitau, as "the worst" in Kazakhstan's history "in terms of co-operation with the government", he offered condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. business".
"We will now consider taking a decision on the enterprise itself," he told Reuters.
This is the second fatal incident at ArcelorMittal's Kazakhstan plant in two months. In August, four miners were killed in a fire at the Karaganda mine.
In November 2022, a methane gas leak at a mine in the same region killed five people and hospitalised four others.
ArcelorMittal Temirtau has 15 coal and ore mines in Kazakhstan.
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