Karmetkombinat: history of construction and environmental problems

Abstract

This article examines the history of the Karaganda metallurgical plant construction. The authors emphasize that the issue of building large objects of heavy industry for the war effort became urgent during the Great Patriotic War. Due to the fact that Kazakhstan possessed large minerals reserves, in 1942 in the Karaganda region the People’s Commissariat of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR initiated the construction of a metallurgical plant for the production of iron, steel and rolled products. However, the start of the plant construction was delayed for several years. First of all, the delay was due to the fact that the plant site, construction base, railway tracks were not prepared for operation for a long time. In addition, the construction of the Atasu iron mine, which was the ore base of the plant, was carried out at a slow pace. Only in 1957, the project of the Karaganda Metallurgical Plant was approved by the Government of the USSR. The authors note that in 1958 the plant became an all-Union Komsomol construction site, in the construction of which seven specialized enterprises participated. The modern Karmetkombinat is one of the largest metallurgical and coal bases in the republic. At the same time, it gives rise to a complex of environmental problems in the region, the solution of which remains permanent.