Mongolia – Coal Mining

 

The small mining settlement with dirt tracks leading toward and around it
(enroute from Mandalgobi to Baga Gazariin Chuluu)

You might find the idea strange to look for coal mining on a trip through Mongolia, but wait. It's more interesting than you might have thought about at first sight.

Surface coal mining

Wikipedia has a general article on mining in Mongolia [1]. In 2010 about 25 million tons of coal were mined and most of it exported to China or Russia. I also looked at the Statistical Yearbook of 2016 and according to these numbers, Mongolia might have mined as much as 37 million tons [2]; the exact number has been 11.7 t per capita – still less than „16 tons“ [3].

We just happened to pass the coal mine or better an area of surface mining with a small settlement. I don't think that this small mine is included in the „17 operating coal mines“, which are mentioned in the Wikepedia article. The coal mine is located about 230 km SW to S of Ulaanbaatar. I think it has been the Coal mining of Tevshiin gobi (Тэвшийн говийн уурхай) [4], which also operates a power plant based on coal, obviously.

Telephotography in the shimmering air during the afternoon -
just to show the effect

Links an Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Mongolia
[2] https://1212.mn/BookLibraryDownload.ashx?url=Yearbook_2016.pdf&ln=Mn
[3] Tennessee Ernie Ford: 16 tons - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRh0QiXyZSk „You load 16 tons, what do you get? / Another day older and deeper in debt“
[4] https://www.gem.wiki/Tevshiin_Govi_coal_mine

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