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Of Borders and Ruins

Of Borders and Ruins. Remembering Russian towns and Chinese ghosts in Mongolia. Grégory Delaplace Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit. Location of Mardai. Source: Google earth. A history of Mardai. 1945-1960 First Uranium deposits found in Mongolia

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Of Borders and Ruins

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  1. Of Borders and Ruins Remembering Russian towns and Chinese ghosts in Mongolia Grégory Delaplace Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit

  2. Location of Mardai Source: Google earth

  3. A history of Mardai • 1945-1960 First Uranium deposits found in Mongolia • 1970-1990 Extensive survey of Mongolian mineral resources by the Ministry of Geology of the USSR • 1977 Uranium ore deposit found near Mardai River • 1981 ERDES uranium mine established in Mardai as a “subcombine” of Priagunsky Mining and Chemical Enterprise, based in Krasnokamensk • 1988 Uranium production starts in Mardai • 1989 Mardai’s existence revealed to the public • 1995 Uranium production stops • 1998 Russian workers sent back home • 1998-now City’s metallic components removed • Now Ongoing negociations to restart uranium production (Central Asian Uranium Company) and rebuild Mardai

  4. A Russian town in Mongolia The city centre and the club

  5. The school… and the ice rink…

  6. Removing the iron Buildings standing without a structure… … and structure standing without the building

  7. Roads stripped of their metallic framework

  8. Loading the iron on a truck The ‘iron market’

  9. Households living off the iron trade Metallic pipes waiting to be collected

  10. A history of Mardai • 1945-1960 First Uranium deposits found in Mongolia • 1970-1990 Extensive survey of Mongolian mineral resources by the Ministry of Geology of the USSR • 1977 Uranium ore deposit found near Mardai River • 1981 ERDES uranium mine established in Mardai as a “subcombine” of Priagunsky Mining and Chemical Enterprise, based in Krasnokamensk • 1988 Uranium production starts in Mardai • 1989 Mardai’s existence revealed to the public • 1995 Uranium production stops • 1998 Russian workers sent back home • 1998-now City’s metallic components removed • Now Ongoing negociations to restart uranium production (Central Asian Uranium Company) and rebuild Mardai

  11. Remembering Mardai The high rises

  12. The kindergarten The swimming pool

  13. “Mongolising” the administration building

  14. Chinese Merchants in early 20th Century Mongolia Source: Mongolian National Archives

  15. Mongolian regimes of relationship with its neighbours

  16. Mongolian cemeteries Graves as ruins

  17. Mongolian cairns (ovoo)

  18. Shinshir lead mines near Mardai

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