The flooded quarry of the Zabaikalsky mining plant

Near the village of Pervomaysky in the Shilka district of Zabaykalsky Krai lies an old open-pit quarry that filled with groundwater after the mining enterprise closed. Minerals in the rock gave the water an unusual turquoise colour, and today the abandoned quarry looks more like a natural lake than an industrial excavation.

History of the plant

Mining at the site began in 1937, when the Slyudyanka mine was founded on the Zavitinskoye deposit. From 1942 the enterprise switched to extracting and processing lithium-beryllium ore and for a long time remained the country's only producer of lithium concentrates. In 1967 the mine was reorganized into the Zabaikalsky Mining and Processing Plant (GOK), under the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building. In the 1980s it was the largest mining enterprise in Chita Oblast, extracting and processing more than a million tonnes of ore a year. Besides lithium, the plant also produced tantalum and niobium, but that program was shut down in 2004. The quarry itself stopped operating earlier, in 1997, after which the pit gradually filled with water.

The quarry today

Today the former workings hold a lake with vividly turquoise water, coloured by minerals dissolved from the surrounding rock. The quarry's edges still show traces of industrial excavation: exposed rock walls and terraces contrast with the bright colour of the water, creating the typical landscape of an abandoned industrial site. Swimming in such quarry lakes at former mining sites is usually not recommended, since the water may still contain residues of ore and chemical elements.

How to get there

The quarry lies near the village of Pervomaysky, reached by a paved road from Shilka. From the village, the quarry can be reached by car along the dirt roads of the former mining area left over from the plant's operation.