On the last Sunday of August, Kazakhstani miners will celebrate their professional holiday.
According to data from the websites of the state electronic labor exchange Enbek.kz and the private recruiting platform Hh.kz, underground miners are offered vacancies with salaries from 165.3 thousand to 500 thousand tenge. The amount depends on the complexity of the tasks, the candidate’s work experience, as well as the size of the employer company. A mining foreman, a miner, judging by the published advertisements, can expect a salary from 400 thousand to 500 thousand tenge, while a mine surveyor – from 470 thousand to 621 thousand tenge.
And here are the official data of the Bureau of National Statistics (BNS). According to information from reports for the second quarter of this year, the average nominal salary of a mining worker was 888.9 thousand tenge. In comparison with other sectors of the economy, this category is second after the financial sector in terms of nominal salary.
The amount of 888.9 thousand tenge is the average figure for the category “Mining industry and quarrying”. Decoding the data by subcategories shows that workers in coal, metal or other mineral mines do not receive so much. The average figure is made so high by the salaries of oil workers. In the “Crude Oil and Natural Gas Extraction” sector, the nominal wage in April-June was 1.4 million tenge, for employees of coal mining companies – 673.1 thousand tenge, at enterprises mining metal ores – 698 thousand tenge and in companies engaged in the extraction of other minerals – 446.5 thousand tenge.
Wages in the mining industry have increased slightly more noticeably over the past few years than in the economy as a whole. According to BNS data, in the first half of 2025, nominal wages on average in the economy increased by 10.7%, and in the mining industry – by 12.9%. A similar trend is also seen in the growth of the purchasing power of wages. The growth of real wages over the same period was 0.3%, namely in the mining industry – 2.3%.
Nominal salary is the result of dividing the total salary fund by the number of employees. This statistical indicator is used to compare data across different categories, criteria, regions, etc. Not every employee in the sector receives an amount close to the nominal salary. The modal (or most common) salary is closer to the real figures. As a rule, it is 30-50% of the nominal.
For example, last year, the nominal salary in the mining industry averaged 866.5 thousand tenge. At the same time, the most common salary was 372.6 thousand tenge, that is, only 43% of the nominal. The figure of 372.6 thousand tenge is very close to the amounts that employers currently offer to potential employees. The median salary – the value that was in the middle – was 533.2 thousand tenge last year.
According to official information, the nominal salary of an underground miner last year was 520.4 thousand tenge. For other blue-collar professions in the sector, the figure is already higher: for a self-propelled machine operator – 609.4 thousand tenge, for a mining engineer – 649 thousand tenge and for an electrical fitter-equipment fitter – 769.2 thousand tenge. The highest salary among engineering and technical workers can be called the salary of a mining technical inspector: 1.9 million tenge.
As for the management staff, the nominal salary there is much higher than the average for the sector. For example, the chairman of the board of a large mining company can receive 3.4 million tenge, the general director – 3.1 million tenge and the head of the quarry – 1.7 million tenge. (EnergyProm)