The fatal explosion at Glencore’s Kazzinc facility in Ust-Kamenogorsk on 5 May has thrown fresh scrutiny on the planned sale of the company to Kazakhstani businessman Shakhmurat Mutalip, with financial analyst Rasul Rysmambetov warning that any rushed transaction risks allowing a wealthy foreign investor to exit without resolving environmental liabilities that have accumulated for decades.
Glencore has held a 70.2% stake in Kazzinc since 1997, with the remaining approximately 30% held by Tau-Ken Samruk, a subsidiary of sovereign fund Samruk-Kazyna. Bloomberg has reported that Mutalip is considering acquiring Glencore’s stake at a valuation of around $3.5 billion. In January 2026, Mutalip registered two new structures at the Astana International Financial Centre — KazZinc Group Ltd and Central Asia Resources Holding Ltd — though no official confirmation of a deal has been made. Tau-Ken Samruk has said it has no intention of selling its own stake.
Rysmambetov, commenting to Kursiv, argued that the explosion and the broader ownership question should not be separated from Kazzinc’s long-standing environmental record. “Kazzinc is probably one of the largest polluters in East Kazakhstan Region. The state ignored this for a long time,” he said. He noted that the facility has never faced penalties comparable to those imposed on oil companies in western Kazakhstan, despite generating significant pollution. Residents of Ust-Kamenogorsk have long complained about air quality, and Rysmambetov said the situation had become serious enough that people were being advised not to go outside.
On the prospective sale, the analyst was sceptical about both its urgency and the buyer’s financial capacity. “A rushed buyout is not necessary, in my view. The environmental situation needs to be fixed first,” he said. He also questioned whether Mutalip has sufficient funds to finance a transaction of this scale while simultaneously acquiring other major assets — Mutalip has already bought gold producer Altynalmas and is reportedly pursuing a 40% stake in ERG.
The deeper concern Rysmambetov raised was one of structural accountability. If Glencore sells before addressing environmental liabilities, the cost of remediation would fall entirely on the new Kazakhstani owners. “It will turn out that Kazakhstani businesspeople buy it and then fix the ecology, while the investors are let go in peace — even though they earned enough to have paid attention to environmental problems,” he said.
Kazzinc generated $5.1 billion in revenue in 2025 according to Glencore’s preliminary financial reporting.
