The death toll from the explosion at Glencore’s Kazzinc facility in Ust-Kamenogorsk has risen to three, Kazakhstani officials confirmed, as a joint investigative team comprising law enforcement, the state labour inspectorate and emergency services continues to work at the site.
Vice Minister of Labour and Social Protection Baurzhan Tuyakbayev told a Senate briefing that investigators are working to establish the precise cause of the incident, examining several possible factors including failure to observe safety regulations, inadequate worker safety briefings, a technological malfunction at the facility, or the continued use of outdated equipment. “We will find out the cause, and believe me, responsibility will follow,” he said.
Asked when the last workplace safety and industrial security inspection had been conducted at the facility, Tuyakbayev said large enterprises of Kazzinc’s scale fall within the highest-risk category — those employing between 5,000 and 10,000 workers — and are subject to annual preventive inspections. He said inspections of Kazzinc and other major enterprises had been carried out in both the previous year and the year before that, and that all compliance orders issued at the time had been fulfilled within the prescribed deadlines without the imposition of fines.
The explosion, which occurred on 5 May at the Kazzinc plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, was followed by a fire and the partial collapse of a roof structure. Environmental officials in East Kazakhstan Region launched urgent air quality monitoring in the immediate aftermath. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has personally taken control of the situation at the plant.
