Blyavinsky Quarry

Blyavinsky Quarry (Блявинский карьер) is the oldest copper-pyrite quarry in the Orenburg region, lying in the valley of the Blyava River near the town of Mednogorsk, 2–3 km southeast of the village of Rakityanka (Orenburg Oblast). The quarry covers about 45 hectares; the upper part is roughly 700 meters across and about 220 meters deep.

History

The Blyavinskoye copper-pyrite deposit was discovered in 1916, explored by the Tanalyk Corporation of the British industrialist Leslie Urquhart, who was already developing copper deposits in Bashkiria. The ore here had a noticeably higher copper content than usual.

Underground mining began at the deposit in 1934, through adits and shafts with a combined length of up to 28 kilometers; on average about 2,500 tons of ore were raised daily. The work was largely done by hand, with only one excavator at the site; the miners first lived in tents and dugouts, and barracks were built for them later.

In 1936 the Mednogorsk copper-sulfur plant was founded nearby; its first output, matte and sulfur, came in February 1939. That April, the settlements of Medny, Nikitino and Rakityanka were merged into the town of Mednogorsk.

From 1954 mining switched to the open-pit method, and bacterial leaching with microorganisms was later used as well. The extracted ore went to the plant in Mednogorsk as well as to the smelter in Karabash and other Ural enterprises. In total, about 20 million tons of ore were mined at the Blyavinskoye deposit between 1934 and 1971.

The ore reserves were exhausted by the early 1970s, and the quarry closed in 1972. In the late 1990s the enterprise handed the worked-out quarry back to the town.

Today

A lake has formed at the bottom of the former quarry, fed by groundwater; its water has a murky, brownish-yellow color from the high content of sulfates and other salts left over from mining sulfide ore. The lake drains constantly through an adit, first into settling ponds and then into the Rakityanka River. The quarry's colorful benches expose the deposit's geological structure: the basin is filled with Middle Jurassic, Upper Cretaceous, Paleogene and Neogene deposits.

Blyavinsky Quarry is recognized as a geological and mining-technical natural monument of the Orenburg region, as an outcrop significant for the history of geological research in the area.

Getting there

The quarry lies near Mednogorsk. The route goes through the village of Rakityanka: drive through it heading east, then turn southeast — the site is about 2–3 kilometers from the village. The nearest railway station is Mednogorsk, on the Orenburg–Orsk line.

Nearby landmarks include the Old German Bridge (about 6 km away) and, a bit farther, the Vishnevka spring and the Palets (Devil's Finger) rock in the Kuvandyk district.