Prosecutors in the Abai Region have secured the cancellation of administrative liability against KAZ Minerals Aktogay, one of Kazakhstan's largest copper mining companies, with an environmental official instead penalized in the case, infohub.kz reports.

"In the Abai Region, prosecutors protected the investor's rights and secured the cancellation of the unlawful administrative liability imposed on KAZ Minerals Aktogay. The regional environmental prosecutor's office established that the ecology department opened an administrative case against the company without conducting a legally required inspection and in violation of established state control procedures," the supervisory authority said in a published statement.

The amount of the fine the company was to pay was not specified. At the same time, the court held the deputy head of the ecology department liable.

"In addition, the court issued a private ruling to the Committee for Environmental Regulation and Control demanding that the identified violations be remedied. The deputy head of the ecology department was also held liable – the court imposed an administrative fine of 20 MCI (86,500 tenge in 2026)," the prosecutor's office said. The prosecutors did not disclose the sanctioned official's name.

At the time of publication, the regional ecology department's website listed Serik Sarbasov as head of the department and Oralkhan Auezbekov as its sole deputy.

KAZ Minerals Aktogay is part of KAZ Minerals, Kazakhstan's largest copper mining company. Businessman Vladimir Kim owns 63.5% of the latter and ranks second on Forbes' list of the wealthiest Kazakhstanis with $5.9 billion, while his longtime copper business partner Oleg Novachuk holds a 36.5% stake (30th place with $388 million).

KAZ Minerals will launch a copper smelter with a capacity of 300,000 tonnes of cathode copper per year in the Abai Region in 2030-2031, KAZ Minerals Management CEO Aizhan Balabatyrova told Kursiv in June. The smelter will be located near the village of Aktogay in the Ayagoz district of the Abai Region. At that time, a preliminary feasibility study for the project had been prepared. In addition to cathode copper, the plant will produce gold and silver bullion.