Fire halts work at ArcelorMittal plant

ALMATY( KAZAKHSTAN): Kazakh emergency officials say work was halted at an ArcelorMittal plant after a fire resulting from an oil spillage.

Authorities said nobody was injured in the Thursday incident. Steel giant ArcelorMittal has been plagued by a slew of industrial accidents in Kazakhstan since the start of the year.

In January, an explosion at the Abay coal mine in the central Karaganda region killed 30 workers and wounded 14. An accident at another mine in the same region in June left five miners dead.

The head of the steelmaker's Kazakh division said on Thursday that accidents in ArcelorMittal's mines in the Central Asian nation have cost the company $150 million.