Deadly explosion at Glencore's Kazzinc Plant leaves two dead, five injured

An explosion at Glencore's large zinc-gold production facility in eastern Kazakhstan on Tuesday killed two people and injured five others.

According to a statement from Glencore's Kazzinc unit, preliminary findings indicate that the blast occurred during maintenance work to clean a smoke extractor. The incident sparked a fire and led to a partial collapse of the structure.

Kazakhstan's Emergency Situations Ministry confirmed the account, stating that a dust-collection unit at the Kazzinc facility in Ust-Kamenogorsk exploded, triggering a blaze and causing one building to partially collapse.

The ministry added that the fire has since been extinguished, and rescue teams are searching for any additional victims. No updates were provided regarding the status of operations at the site.

Kazzinc, which is 70% owned by Glencore, is Kazakhstan's largest producer of zinc, lead, copper, gold, and silver. The remaining 30% is held by the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.