Erdenet
(2000 pop. 68,000). Erdenet (1,300 meters above sea level), located 240 kilometers northwest of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is the second largest city in the country. Erdenet is also one of Mongolia's youngest cities. Its establishment began with the discovery of massive copper and molybdenum deposits in Erdenet Mountain in the 1960s. By 1974, an oreprocessing plant began operating in the area under a Mongolian-Soviet joint venture—the Erdenet Copper and Molybdenum Mining and Concentrating Combine. In 1975, the industrial complex, located in a valley between the Selenge and Orhon Rivers, was officially declared a town.
Although the city has several industries—including a carpet factory, a food-processing plant, and a timber-processing plant—its economy revolves around copper and molybdenum mining. By 1990, the city boasted Asia's largest copper-molybdenum oreprocessing plant and accounted for up to 90 percent of the total output of Mongolia's mining industry. The city also supplies 30 percent of the country's tax income and 60 percent of its exports.
Further Reading
The Academy of Sciences Mongolian People's Republic. (1990) Information Mongolia. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
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