ArcelorMittal has agreed to the nationalisation of its Kazakhstan subsidiary, ArcelorMittal Temirtau, after a series of fatal accidents over recent years.

The company’s activities in Kazakhstan include coal and iron ore mining, as well as a steel plant (which last year produced 5.7% of the company’s global output), although it is not clear at this stage if it will be compensated for the assets it owns. This issue, however, pales in comparison to the most recent disaster to occur within the company’s operations, with 44 workers killed (and one still missing) after a fire in a coal mine caused by a suspected methane leak.

It is the worst mining disaster in the country for more than a decade. The nationalisation, though, has been the subject of talks between the government and ArcelorMittal Temirtau for some months, and an agreement in principle had been signed shortly before the tragedy.