Karaganda basin is located on the area of the same name and in the center of this region. Carbon coal-content area occupies the land of about 2000 km2 at the total thickness 4000m. Four synclines are notable in the basin: Tentek, Sherubainur, Karaganda and Verkhnesokursk, first three of them make an industrial part of basin and are studied full enough up to the depths 700- 1300m.

Productive sediments are represented by Ashlyarik, Karaganda, Dolinsk and Tentek series which contain up to 30 coal seams with the total working thickness 40m, coal ash content varies within the limits of 10-35 % with the tendency of reduction upwards the section. The most-widely spread are coals of types from hvBb to mvb. Karaganda basin is considered as a high gas content and gas content seams intensively grow from the beginning of methane zone up to 400-500m reaching 15-20 m3/t, and are more stabilized on the depth within the limits of 22-27 m3/t. Gas weathering zone depth varies within the limits of 60-250 m.

The coal mines of ArcelorMittal Temirtau are located in the Karaganda Coal Basin. The basin is more than 3,000 square kilometers and was formed by strata of Upper Devonian and Carbonic ages, Mesozoic and Cainozoic formations. Due to structural peculiarities, the coal basin is divided into three geology-based mining areas: Karagandinskiy, Sherubay-Nurinskiy and Tentekskiy.

Geological Conditions
The field of Lenina mine is represented by an asymmetrical synclinal fold that is complicated by plicative and disjunctive imperfections and faults. The geological structure of coal-bearing strata is represented by argillites, siltstones and sandstones of carbonic age. The productive layer is presented by seams of Dolinskaya suite: D1, D3, D5, D6, D9, D10. All of the seams are considered dangerous with outbursts. The main coal grade is KZh with rare1K Coke and 2K Coke.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau acquired 15 coal mines in 1996 in the Karaganda Coal Basin region (all deep mines in the region). These mines were restructured into eight captive coal mines: Kostenko, Kuzembaev, Saranskaya, Abaiskaya, Kazakhstanskaya, Lenina, Shaktanskaya, and Tentekskaya. These coal mines are all underground mines that use the retreat longwall mining method.

Lenina mine is located in Shakhtinskiy district of Karaganda oblast. It was commissioned in 1964 with a designed capacity of 2.1 million tons of coal per year. From 1964 to 2010, Lenina mine produced 92.8 million tons of coal. The maximum amount of production, 3.09 million tons, was reached in 1977. The Coal Division of JSC “ArcelorMittal Temirtau” acquired the mine in July 1, 1996 and it has been a large, highly mechanized enterprise since then.

Coal mining operations are held by complex 2OKP-70K and combine 1KShE. Drifting is run by combines KSP-32, GPKS.

All mines are connected to the main railway, and coal is transported by railway to the coal wash plants and power stations.

The mines produce primarily coking coal used for steelmaking at Temirtau and thermal coal for ArcelorMittal Temirtau’s power plants. For beneficiation of coking coal, two washeries are operated—one located near several of the coal mines and the other at the ArcelorMittal Temirtau steel plant(CPP “Vostochnaya” and Temirtau Washery-2). Surplus coal is supplied to group steel plants, mainly ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih, Ukraine.