Balkhash, 23 October. The Karaganda regional department of the Financial Monitoring Agency stopped illegal mining of iron and manganese ore near the village of Sayak in Balkhash, which investigators say was organised by the director of Vertex Co.
LLP and MiningMetall LLP; specialists estimate that restoring the damaged land will cost 485m tenge.
The work was carried out without subsoil use rights or permits. The organisers used hired workers and heavy machinery, including excavators, loaders, a crushing unit and dump trucks. The extracted material was crushed and taken to a railway station for shipment and sale. An inspection found three quarries with traces of large-scale stripping and mining; the total volume of excavated soil was 338,000 cubic metres.
The court seized two pieces of heavy machinery, a car and commercial premises. The suspect has been released on bail, and the investigation continues.
What it means: A private firm opened three quarries without a licence and sold ore; the state now puts the damage to the land at almost half a billion tenge, while the value of the ore taken out is not stated.
Who benefits: According to investigators, the organisers, who sold ore without taxes or permits. The state, as owner of the subsoil and the land, bore the damage.
Background: The buyers of the ore shipped by rail and its volume are not named in the agency's statement; 485m tenge is the estimated cost of reclaiming the three quarries.
List of sources used: Informburo, Zakon.kz
Artificial intelligence was used in preparing this material.
