Alatoo Mine 43

Trucks and their payload heading to Osh

We drive by a coal mine in the Alatoo mountains (North Kyrgyzstan; one of Kyrgyz's three ranges with the Pamirs and the Tian Shan). It is a rugged affair and not pretty - a dirt lot filled with 30 large trucks, others grinding up or down a terraced hill to the elevated pit. There are discarded rusted drums and machinery by the roadside and an accommodation for shelter for the men, maybe also squat toilets.

Before this point we hit our first rain/ snow turning the dusty road to mud and making the coal grounds even less pleasant. I am happy to drive by.