Ust-Kamenogorsk (Oskemen) metallurgical complex

Non-ferrous metallurgy has dominated the city's economy since the late 1940s, with the zinc-lead smelter now part of Kazzinc, a company formed in 1997 by merging three East Kazakhstan combines. The Ulba Metallurgical Plant, tied to the Soviet nuclear programme, makes uranium, beryllium and tantalum products; for that reason the city was closed to outsiders (Wikipedia). The plants directly adjoin residential areas.

In 1990 an explosion on the beryllium line at the Ulba plant spread a beryllium-bearing cloud over the city; the health effects are not fully known, partly because the Soviet authorities kept the incident hidden (Wikipedia).

At ten points in the centre, topsoil had geoaccumulation indices of 3.7–6.5 for cadmium, 2.8–5.7 for lead, 2.6–4.6 for zinc and 1.5–4.7 for copper, with a pollution load index of up to 33.4. Cadmium and lead were the most bioavailable elements (Woszczyk et al. 2018). In allotments, soil and vegetables held more metals in the industrial zone and less in the suburbs; among vegetables, beetroot concentrated them more than carrots, tomatoes and cabbage (Boluspayeva et al. 2022). Irtysh sediment below the hydroelectric dam is also among the most contaminated in East Kazakhstan (Muter et al. 2024).