[Translation prepared by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

Kazatomprom subsidiary fined 1.8 million tenge for soil contamination with sulfuric acid, 13 November 2024

The press service of Kazatomprom reports that the Department of Ecology for the Turkestan region has completed an unscheduled inspection at the mine of JV Zarechnoye in the Otyrar district of the Turkestan region, initiated after the distribution of a video on social networks with footage of spills of process solutions, allegedly near the enterprise.

"As a result of the inspection, no violations were found in the areas shown in the video. However, the fact of soil contamination with sulfuric acid was recorded in another area of ​​the mine. Based on the identified violations, the Department of Ecology imposed fines on JV Zarechnoye under the articles “Violation of environmental requirements for waste management” and “Failure to comply with requirements for the submission of mandatory information” for a total of 1,846,000 tenge,” the company said in a statement.

According to Kazatomprom, in connection with the incident, the company is conducting an internal official investigation in order to identify the causes of the spill and hold accountable those who committed the violations.

“In addition, unscheduled inspections have been initiated at all production facilities of the Kazatomprom group of companies in order to improve the level of production risk management and prevent similar situations in the future,” the company assures...