Mukhtar Baltaevich began his career in the early 80s at the Altay Mining and Processing Combine as an underground measurer, and later as an underground miner at mine surveying works. After doing military service in the Soviet Army, the 20-year-old Mukhtar Baltaevich went to work in the copper region, the famous Zhezkazgan Mining and Metallurgical Combine. He began working at mine No. 57 of the Eastern mine as an underground assistant miner. At this very mine, Mukhtar Ertayev succeeded as a mining specialist. Like in an underground labyrinth, step by step, meter by meter, he started to learn and delve into the basics of his profession, the profession of a miner. Mukhtar has a long service record: underground duty distributor, underground miner, underground head of a section of the Eastern mine of the Zhazkazgan Mining and Metallurgical Combine. In total, Mukhtar Baltaevich has worked at this mine for over 14 years. After that, as the most experienced miner, he was transferred to the position of the head of the underground section of the South Zhezkazgan mine of Zhezkazgantsvetmet. Here, Mukhtar has also shown his professional qualities and deep knowledge of a specialist. He worked his way up from the head of the underground section to the chief engineer of a mine of the South Zhezkazgan mine. Having worked for more than 5 years at this mine, Mukhtar Baltayevich, as an extra-class specialist, was invited to work as a chief engineer at Balkhashtsvetmet PA to the new deposit developed by Kazakhmys, Shatyrkul mine. Later, Mukhtar Batayevich was appointed the director of this mine. And now, for 16 years, he has been the permanent head of the Shatyrkul mine of Balkhashtsvetmet PA of the Mining and Processing Complex of Kazakhmys Corporation LLP. “The mine has over 300 rotational workers from across Kazakhstan. And first of all, our team adheres to the corporation's policy in terms of industrial and occupational safety at work. This is the main task for each of us, in addition to fulfilling the plan. We produce and transport up to 1700 tons of ore per day and send to the Balkhash concentrating mill up to 52 thousand tons of ore per month. Now the management of Balkhashtsvetmet PA and the Kazakhmys Corporation prioritizes mining because the material and financial well-being of the entire Balkhash industrial site, and, consequently, of all its workers, depends first of all on our success.The mine is provided with mining equipment to a sufficient extent, and its uninterrupted operation is ensured by the maintenance technicians of the service center of the mining equipment plant. We try to avoid downtime of mining equipment because minute stops add up to hours, and it means non-produced and non-transported tons of ore, lost profit and wages of each individual.Do the miners understand it? Yes, they do. Every mine worker knows that his wages depend on the volume of ore produced, that everything at the mine is interconnected, everyone is in the same boat, and success is possible only with the joint efforts of the whole team. Maybe not every worker is able to make economic calculations, but everyone can understand the overall picture quite well.Working for the result in team disciplines. Even an absolute idler, who is ready to sacrifice his bonuses for rest, will hardly dare to «hit the pockets» of his friends.Reliable people are valued at mines. We have reliable people in our labor collective as well: the drift team of Igor Gostevskikh and Ertay Konysov, the production team of bucket workers of Azamat Userov, the team of operators of the load-haul-dumper of Manat Akbergenov, the hole driller Shyngys Kalizhanov, and the blaster Rakhimzhan Tashmetov.  I have a very competent chief engineer, Bagdat Konyrov. In many departments, most of the workers are young people” For his long and dedicated service, Mukhtar Ertayev was awarded certificates of merit and medals but the most precious for him is the III class industry badge «Kenshi dańqy,» which was awarded to him in 2004. And this year, the entire labor collective of the Shatyrkul mine nominated him for the next badge, II class «Kenshi dańqy».