Clean Riverbank

KAZ Minerals encourages awareness of the environment in which the Group operates amongst its employees and contractors and looks to support its employees in implementing environmental initiatives. An example of one such activity took place in August 2022, employees from the Artemyevsky site at East Region teamed up for the project ’Clean Riverbank‘.

During the project, the team cleaned the banks of the Talovka river, by the Ust-Talovka village. The village is close to the Nikolayevsky concentrator, where ore from the Artemyevsky mine is processed. The Talovka is a small river that flows into the river Uba, which is ultimately a tributary to the Irtysh river. The water from the Talovka river also flows into the irrigation canals, used by residents of Ust-Talovka to water their gardens and orchards.

Rivers are a fundamental part of natural ecosystems and support a range of different animals and plants. Unfortunately, man-made pollution arising from littering can put a strain on natural habitats. The employees at Artemyevsky noticed that in the Ust-Talovka village, at the end of summer a large amount of household waste had accumulated on the banks of the Talovka river: plastic cups and bags, broken bottles, and cans. The bed of the river was silted up with sediment, dry branches stuck out along the river while the banks of the river were overgrown with dry tall grass. As a result, the employees formed a team from across several departments and decided to take steps to improve and restore the area. They approached the local authorities for permission and guidance, and in partnership with them, launched the campaign to start the clean-up, during which household rubbish was removed and clearings were made to enable residents of Ust-Talovka to enjoy the natural beauty of the river. As part of the project, KAZ Minerals provided the volunteers with two loaders and a truck to remove the debris.

The campaign did not only focus on cleaning the river, but also on raising awareness of important environmental issues and conservation of natural resources. This represents one of the targets of UN SDG 6, clean water and sanitation, which looks to support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management.

“The campaign showed that we have people who love their village and its surroundings. It is in our interests and in our power to save the nature around us,” said Asem Tokenova, laboratory engineer at the Artemyevsky drainage and neutralisation site.