In this post I will try to introduce you to how life works for workers at the Konder mine - one of the largest deposits in Russia and the world for platinum mining.

On the wiki they write:
The mountain range itself is located in the Ayano-Maisky district of the Khabarovsk Territory, 1100 km north of Khabarovsk. The ridge is known for its almost perfect ring-shaped shape with a diameter of about 8 kilometers, located in a picturesque, but inaccessible place. It is not considered a tourist attraction because there is a platinum deposit of national importance here.

Beginning of November 2012. First snow in Yekaterinburg.

Flight Ekaterinburg - Moscow.

Reisk Moscow - Khabarovsk.

Some 9 hours in the air and I'm on far east. The weather turned out to be much warmer than in the capital and the Urals.
Dry and not a single hint of snow.

Airport "Khabarovsk"

Cupid is father.

In 2 days there is a flight of the Amur airline. Khabarovsk - Mar-Kuel.
On approach to the Mar-Kuel airport.

Airport. It seems like winter has been here for a long time.

The building where flight crews and airport staff live.

A few hours on the shift bus and I arrived in Conder.
The village itself is located on the river of the same name, 10-15 km from the Konder ridge. built on this site in 2006. There is no permanent population in the village; the nearest settlement is the village of Nelkan, with a population of 841 people according to 2011 data. Employees of the artel live in Condyor, about 600 people permanently. Electricity supply is from a diesel power station, all buildings are environmentally friendly - wooden.
We arrived at night, everyone flocked to the bathhouse. The bath attendant is responsible for accommodating first-time arrivals and issuing bedding.

During the day there was an opportunity to see the village a little better. (photos borrowed from rusplatinum "Conder - how do platinum miners live in Russia").
Considering the great distance from the regional center, life is very well organized. So:

The first thing that should be in such places is a dining room.

The food is very good, I heard from people who worked there for a long time that sometimes they have to endure
when delivery of products is not possible due to weather conditions. But there are enough supplies and people are not starving.
In the morning, porridge, butter, bread, boiled eggs and tea.
Lunch first, second and compote.
For dinner I remember fried chicken legs, cooked very often.

The buildings are connected to each other by wooden logs, this was most likely done for reasons of cleanliness.
Less clay and sand are carried into rooms on shoes. And it's easier to climb.

The workers' dormitories are all the same.


I didn’t go inside, I won’t tell you how. Beds, tables, chairs, workers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the gym, with a basketball/volleyball court and a gym, with good equipment
inventory.

There is also a store (cigarettes, tea, Snickers, soap), a hospital complex (I even saw a dentist’s office),
bathhouse combined with laundry room, telephone call. The mobile operator tower was installed quite recently, I can imagine the queues that accumulated earlier. Wi-Fi routers were installed in the engineering dormitory building where I was accommodated, but while I was working at the mine I didn’t have time to use it. So, in general, all conditions have been created for an acceptable life and work at the mine. The working shift for miners is from 3 to 6 months, so why not worry about the comfort of the working staff.

If I'm not mistaken, this miracle of engineering is called a dredger:
this is one of the elements of the entire chain of structures and structures, allowing for washing up to 25 kg of platinum per day.

By the time I arrived, the 2012 flushing season was coming to an end.

Same 475, but many years older. The dump is the size of a Sobol car. I adjusted it and compared).

And small ones like this Komatsu D65E.

For size comparison). Domestic worker Sobol and worker from Tokyo.

And this is the work of the “hands” of low temperatures and frozen soil. The thermometer dropped to -52*C.
The handle of a Komatsu PC1250 excavator was damaged.

We managed to get close to the very ring of the ridge only once.
The ring is on the right, behind the forest.

And this is already close, as the snowdrifts allowed us to approach it.

One of the most interesting events at the mine is the explosion of the test site.

The stone almost hit the windshield for 0.17 seconds, after which I stopped observing the explosions.

It remains a mystery to me what caused such bending of the trunks.
Looks very nice.

Mailbox, I googled that Dusmakit is such a mountain. I don’t understand why she needs a mailbox.

Road to civilization)
It is very difficult for two trucks to pass each other. It's easy to fly off the rolling snow
and spend long hours digging. Although these meetings are not very frequent. After driving about 150 km, I met
only 3-4 cars.

By 2013, the management of the artel planned to put into operation a local airport,
located in the village of Worgalan, which will greatly facilitate logistics. But due to the weather conditions of these places
It is not possible to solve the delivery problem 100%. According to the stories of the “locals”, sometimes you have to wait
more than a week by plane from Khabarovsk. Taking into account the fact that you are at the transshipment base of the Mar-Kuel vehicle.
There are no problems with food, but in terms of overnight accommodation there are wooden bunks.

The long-awaited end of 2012 has arrived and the end of my work shift at the mine. Where else but at work will he appear?
the opportunity to see such places and complex metal production processes.
The ticket has been received, all that remains is to go through pre-flight inspection, pass the stabbing and cutting weapons and return to Khabarovsk.

Some numbers:
at the time of writing this post (05/14/2014), the cost of platinum is 1458.50 USD per troy ounce.
Artel production is at least 25 kg per day, 1 ounce = 31.103 grams. Total 803.769 ounces or 1172216.7 USD.
Such amounts.

A circular mountain range with a diameter of 8 km

The Konder ridge is a mountain range located in the Ayano-Maisky district of the Khabarovsk Territory. The ridge is located 1100 km from Khabarovsk, 100 km from the village of Nelkan and 75 km from the village of Dzhigda.

Conder attracts attention with its unusual shape. On satellite map Conder looks like a smooth ring, open only in the north. The diameter of the “ring” is about 8 km, and the height of the mountain range is from 1200 to 1387 m. In the north, the Worgalana (Konder) river flows out of the “ring”.

Origin of Conder

For a long time, scientists could not explain the origin of the unusual mountain range. There were many theories that such a smooth shape could have appeared from the fall of a meteorite or asteroid.

However, it has been proven that the ridge appeared due to terrestrial processes. The main process that influenced the appearance of Conder was magmatic intrusion. This is a process when molten masses from the lower layers reach the upper layers of the Earth. But in this case, the molten masses did not have sufficient force to break through the earth's surface. They were only able to “heave up” the surface layers, forming an almost evenly shaped ring.

A special feature of Conder is that in the center of the “ring” there is an intrusive body. The top of this intrusive body is located almost at the level of the earth's surface. The uplifted "ring" of shale was formed by rupture during intrusion.

Interestingly, an intrusion, only of a different type, was the cause of the emergence of the Devil's Tower

Conder Ridge: yesterday and today

For the Yakut and Evenk tribes living in the territory of modern Khabarovsk Territory, the Konder mountain range was a sacred mountain called Urgula.

During the Soviet era, the ridge was explored and a huge deposit of platinum was discovered. Data on the depth and richness of the deposit were confirmed in the 70s. From this moment on, mining and exploration work on the Konder ridge is being carried out by the Amur prospecting team.

It was geologists who gave the mountain range the name Conder. Perhaps the name is due to the fact that the mountain range is extremely rich in various precious metals and minerals.

Today, platinum mining is carried out on the ridge. Prospectors mine nuggets, some of which reach 1.5-3.5 kg. In addition, blue calcite, conderite, black garnet, nepheline and monticellite are mined here.

Getting to the Konder ridge is not easy: due to the platinum deposit of national importance, the ridge is not a tourist site. You can get to the mountain range by helicopter. Nearest locality is Tomptocan.

• Application for a visit Using the form on the website.
• Interactive map Find objects of interest.

Konder Ridge

A thousand kilometers north of Khabarovsk in the Ayano-Maisky district there is a very interesting natural formation - a mountain range of almost perfectly ring-shaped with a diameter of 8 km and a height of up to 1300 m. The Evenki Konder called Worgula. In the north, the Worgalana River flows out of the “ring”. Later, geologists gave another name to this object (Conder).

Conder has attracted the attention of scientists since the 30s of the 20th century, but in those days it was extremely difficult to get to it.

Later, a close study of Conder began, p At the same time, hypotheses are put forward - one more fantastic than the other.There were many theories that such a smooth shape could have appeared from the fall of a meteorite or asteroid.

However, it has been proven that the ridge appeared due to terrestrial processes. The main process that influenced the emergence of Conder was magmatic intrusion. This is a process when molten masses from the lower layers reach the upper layers of the Earth. But in this case, the molten masses did not have sufficient force to break through the earth's surface. They were only able to “heave up” the surface layers, forming an almost evenly shaped ring.

Conder is famous not only for its shape and structure. At one time, the world's largest placers of platinum were discovered on Conder. The world's largest platinum nuggets weighing up to 3.5 kg were discovered here. Moreover, some of them had a crystalline form and had not been found anywhere in the world before. Amazing mystery nature, causing confusion in the minds of scientists.

Once again, readers themselves provide an interesting link to unique and unknown places on our planet. Blog author gorynych1 shared a link to a ring-shaped mountain range in the Khabarovsk Territory. I suggest you look at all its unusualness.

Conder- a mountain range in the Ayano-Maisky district of the Khabarovsk Territory. It is composed of alkaline-ultrabasic igneous rocks.

The ridge is best known for its almost perfect ring-shaped shape, with a diameter of about 8 kilometers and an altitude of 1200 to 1387 meters. In the beliefs of the Evenks and Yakuts, the Konder ridge has long been considered a holy mountain called Urgula. It is located 75 km west of the village of Dzhigda and 100 km west-southwest of the village of Nelkan, downstream of the Maimakan River, and also 1100 km north of Khabarovsk.

The ridge is located in a harshly picturesque, and at the same time in a remote place. It is not considered a tourist attraction precisely because it is home to a nationally significant platinum mine.

Coordinates of the place on the map: 57°37’50.50″N and 134°39’22.92″E.

The official explanation of this geology of the massif:

The ridge owes its origin to magmatic intrusion. In other words, as a result of volcanic activity in the bowels of the earth, molten masses fell from the deep to the upper layers earth's crust. Because the igneous masses were not pushed to the surface with insufficient force, they only uplifted the surface shales, thus forming a circular ridge.

Another unique feature of the Conder ridge is one of the largest platinum deposits in the world located on its territory. Scientists came to this conclusion in the late 1970s, and before that they believed that this was an episodic phenomenon.

Already in 1984, regular work on the extraction of platinum by prospectors of the Amur artel began. As it turned out, the platinum deposits are huge, as evidenced by nuggets weighing from one and a half to three and a half kilograms. In addition, there were also crystalline nuggets. In addition to platinum, a number of other platinoids were found on the territory of the ridge, which also began to be mined industrially, as well as deposits of nepheline, black garnet, monticellite, and blue calcite. It also has its own endemic mineral - conderite.

Currently, the Amur Mining Artel (part of the Russian Platinum group of companies) continues to develop the Conder alluvial platinum deposit.

This is not a volcano. The version that the Konder structure was not a volcano in the past is supported by the fact that during large-scale studies during the exploration period and subsequent exploitation, no traces of volcanic activity were identified in the area of ​​the deposit - the so-called effusive (outpoured) rocks of various types. composition. On the contrary, all rocks studied in the massif, including rocks bearing platinum-metal mineralization, can only form at a pressure much higher than atmospheric pressure, that is, they are intrusive (deep).

This video says that initially, platinum was found precisely inside the ring structure, but it ended and prospectors switched to mining it in the river valleys.

So, we have read the official information, let's look and think about this education from a different point of view.

Note that the ring ridge, which itself is not natural in shape and impossible in formation, is found without forest cover on the slopes. This means that he is young in geological age. There can be no talk of any millions of years if not even a layer of turf has been formed to secure the trees on the slopes.

But perhaps the height of the ridge does not allow vegetation to appear here due to the severity of the climate. This is observed in the massifs to the west.

A river flows from the center of the massif, which indicates a large flow of water from the depths.

Perhaps I will join the opinion that this ring-shaped massif is a place where platinum was mined sometime in the past. Our advanced ancestors, the “Gods,” evil aliens ravaging the planets. This is exactly the picture that emerges. It is quite possible that the mining was underground, the dumps were brought to the surface in the form of a ring, which we now perceive as natural.

But the most important fact that screams “for” the above explanation is the presence of platinum in that place on an industrial scale.

On the elevation map, the Conder ridge looks just as unnatural.

View from the top of the ridge.

As you can see, the rock from which the massif is composed is crushed rock.

These platinum crystals are sometimes found in the deposit near Conder: native platinum, twin crystals about 2 centimeters in size.

It’s hard to imagine that just recently our Earth was mercilessly developed. But many facts speak about this.

Addition.
For an analogy, I will add photographs of circular shafts. There are similarities between the Conder ridge and the circular ramparts.

As an example, the supposed Xiko volcano. Located at the very southern end of the Mexico City metropolis.

The scale, of course, is not the same, but building such shafts with shovels...
Labor costs are more than for a fortress, but efficiency is less. In general, there is such a version...

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Photos

Description of the place

The Konder ridge is a mountain range of a regular ring shape in the Khabarovsk Territory, located 1,100 kilometers north of Khabarovsk, 75 kilometers west of the small village of Dzhigda. He is in a harsh, but at the same time very picturesque place, characterized by its extreme inaccessibility. In ancient beliefs of the Yakuts and Evenks, Konder was called the holy mountain of Urgul. This unique mountain range would have long ago become a tourist attraction if it were not for one of the world’s largest platinum deposits discovered on its territory in the 1970s. In 1984, the Amur artel began mining this valuable metal. Today the artel is part of the Russian Platinum group of companies, which continues the industrial development of deposits.

The Konder ridge, as mentioned above, has a regular ring shape with a diameter of about eight kilometers. Its height ranges from 1,200 meters to 1,387 meters. The mountain range owes its origin to igneous intrusion. In the northern part the ring of mountains breaks. In this place, the river of the same name flows out of the ridge.