Inspections of 55 mines and quarries in Kazakhstan have revealed that ten facilities operated by eight companies have yet to install worker positioning systems, the Ministry of Industry and Construction has disclosed, as authorities push to close safety gaps across the extractive sector following a series of industrial accidents.
Industry and Construction Minister Yersaiyn Nagassayev told a government meeting that three of the non-compliant facilities have committed funding for the installation of positioning systems, while technical solutions are being developed for five others. The remaining sites require equipment modernisation to bring safety standards up to the required level. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Emergency Situations are jointly working on strengthening industrial safety requirements across mining enterprises.
The inspections form part of a broader safety and modernisation drive initiated at presidential level, which identified 50 leading enterprises in the mining and metallurgical complex as priority targets for technical re-equipment and modernisation. Since the programme began, companies in the sector have directed more than 530 billion tenge toward capacity upgrades, equipment maintenance and production expansion.
Nagassayev highlighted the role of digital and AI-based technologies in preventing accidents before they occur. Neural network algorithms and machine vision solutions are being deployed to automatically identify risk factors and anomalies, while real-time process monitoring through digital platforms allows problems to be detected and resolved before they escalate into incidents.
