Mardai is an abandoned uranium mining town located in the Dornod aimag of Mongolia, in a remote area north of Choibolsan.
The Dornod area was prospected for uranium ore by the Soviet Union beginning in the late 1940s. In 1972, a Soviet geological expedition discovered significant uranium reserves and in 1988 the Erdes Mining Enterprise began operation. Mardai was a "secret city" that housed the mine's Russian engineers and technical staff. Mining stopped in 1993 following the fall of the Soviet Union and Mardai, which had housed about 10,000 Soviet personnel, was completely abandoned. Local Mongolian people then scavenged the city for building materials, leaving behind a ruined ghost town.[1][2]
The geology consists of the Lower Cretaceous Zuunbayan Formation, composed of lignite-bearing continental sediments, and the underlying Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous continental sediments and volcanic rocks. The volcanics consist of rhyolite, basalt, trachyandesite, and trachyrhyolite. Uranium ore bodies are found in the Dornod, consisting of coffinite and pitchblende.[3]
References
edit- ^ "Uranium in Mongolia". World Nuclear Association. January 11, 2011.
- ^ "Business Opportunities with Oyu Tolgoi - 2010". Mongolia Web News. February 26, 2010. Archived from the original on August 26, 2010.
- ^ "Geological Classification of Uranium Deposits and Description of Selected Examples, IAEA-TECDOC-1842" (PDF). International Atomic Energy Agency. 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
External links
edit- Ураны төлөөх уралдаан ба уралцаан
- Cows roam where people once lived
- 12 Uranium licenses to be cancelled
49°06′N 114°12′E / 49.100°N 114.200°E
 | This Mongolia location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |