Extractive Industry Tied to “Serious” Abuses in Kazakhstan - Report

When it comes to the transition minerals boom, it is the workers who pay the price, both in terms of labor rights and as concerns health and safety, a new report by the Business and Human Rights Center says.The BHRC is an international NGO that tracks the impact of over 10,000 companies worldwide on human rights.In its latest assessment of the mining and mineral processing sector in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, it documented 373 allegations of labor and environmental abuses recorded across the region in 2025.The research comes as the European Union expands mineral-sourcing partnerships with countries across the region, including Kazakhstan, under its Critical Raw Materials Act.Of the 14 countries where incidents were recorded, Kazakhstan ranked third by volume, after Russia (147) and Ukraine (112), with 39 documented cases last year.In Russia, where the BHRC recorded the most alleged rights and safety violations, around 65% of incidents resulted in some form of legal proceedings, from official inquiries to court cases.In Kazakhstan, only 38% of recorded abuses led to legal action, with most such cases confined to environmental fines and inspections.In 2025, authorities did not file a single lawsuit against mining companies, and no court ordered any company to pay compensation.When asked whether Kazakhstani workers or communities currently have a functioning way to seek compensation or accountability, BHRC spokesperson Priyanka Mogul could not give a definitive answer: “We cannot reply affirmatively to this question.” Mogul added that the BHRC had found no publicly available information on worker lawsuits or attempts to file complaints through company grievance mechanisms.Data from "Workers paying the price" report, August 2026.Explosions and AccidentsThe report highlighted two accidents at the Bolashak chromium mine in western Kazakhstan’s Aktobe region, and an explosion at the Zhomart mine, in the central Ulytau region, as illustrations of what an absence of legal consequences can look like in practice.In 2025, a methane leak caused an explosion that killed seven workers at the Zhomart mine.Kazakhmys, which operates the mine and is Kazakhstan’s largest copper producer, responded to the incident by temporarily suspending operations and announcing a “comprehensive safety review”. Nine months later, a shaft at Zhomart collapsed, nearly prompting a second fatal accident.Mogul told Vlast that the BHRC had found no official statement from the company confirming the results of their internal review, or what changed as a result.The only trace of the audit is an anonymous article on the site of the MINEX lobby group describing measures the company had allegedly taken.