Bust to boom in Kazakh steel town
The little known Kazakh town of Aksu is a global steel giant. Its main factory employs most of the residents and is owned by three billionaires, but appearances can be deceptive in this post-Soviet heartland.
Goodbye Lenin!
People walk past Soviet-era statues, mostly of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin, in the center of the town of Aksu. Over 80,000 people work for Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), making it one of the largest employers in the industry. ERG is the world's largest ferrochrome producer by chrome content, a key supplier of aluminum and iron ore, and a principal manufacturer of copper and cobalt.
Shock and ore
The Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) factory is controlled by three billionaires and though the Kazakh government also has a stake it's a far cry from the communist model of ownership by the proletariat. The firm's oligarch founders, Alexander Mashkevich, Alijan Ibragimov and Patokh Chodiev, have been described as "more Soviet than City."
Heavy lifting
A man lifts weights at a sports complex at the Aksu Ferroalloys Plant in the town of Aksu, north-eastern Kazakhstan. The communist-era stress on publicly funded sports is one aspect of life that hasn't changed very much.
The fisherman's tale
One in five of Aksu's 50,000 residents works at the factory and it is a model for the country's state-sponsored capitalism under which tycoons are responsible for the welfare of "mono towns" that depend on their business. Since its foundation in 1994, ERG has been one of the world's leading mining and smelting groups.
Kazakhstan's brightest spark
A melting furnace inside Eurasian Resources Group's (ERG) Aksu Ferroalloys Plant in Aksu. The plant is the world's largest producer of ferrochrome by chrome content. ERG also supplies electricity and is a large railway operator in Central Asia.
Aksu by night
On the surface, the Kazakh town of Aksu looks like a communist stereotype. But its metals factory is the world's biggest and for generations has provided residents with employment, healthcare, education and leisure.
A kick in the park
Children play football in the town of Aksu, which means white river in the local language. Some 50 kilometers (32 miles) to the south of Pavlodar on the left bank of the Irtysh River, Aksu has a population of about 42,000 and its local economy, you guessed it!, is based on the Aksu Ferroalloys Plant and a power plant owned by Eurasian Power Corporation.
The dreaming spires of Aksu
A woman walks with her child in a playground in the center of the town of Aksu, north-eastern Kazakhstan. ERG also owns production and development stage assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique and Mali. In Brazil it is developing the Pedra de Ferro iron ore production complex and the Porto Sul deep water port.
From small acorns...
Street food vendor, Nina, waiting for customers at a small market in Aksu. Since 2014 the town's main employer, ERG, has sold assets worth about $1 billion, including zinc mines, to Glencore, to reduce its debts.