In January of 2017, I traveled to Mongolia to help my friend and fellow reporter Peter Bittner produce a documentary project about the catastrophic pollution problem in Ulaanbaatar. The South China Morning Post recently published a new version of that documentary which gives me the opportunity to share it once again and look back on some of the work I produced during that trip.
In addition to this video, I wanted to share a collection of photos I took in Nalaikh—a mining town that feels like a ghost town reborn.
Check out the video and scroll down to see the images.
A small-scale mining operation taking place on the grounds of the closed, state-run coal mine at Nalaikh. Nalaikh, shown in the distance, is just under an hour away from Ulaanbaatar. Miners fill and refill as many small trucks as they can each day which are driven to the capital.
Nalaikh was a state-run coal mine originally opened in 1922 as Mongolia’s first industrial mining operation. As a socialist government gave way to democracy in the early ’90s, a combination of shrinking subsidies and one final mining catastrophe lead the government to close and abandon the mine.
At the turn of the twenty-first-century, consecutive zuud—exceptionally harsh winters—decimated animal populations across Mongolia forcing many nomadic herders to move to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city.
A rising need for raw coal to fuel stoves and warm the homes of former herders combined with a high unemployment rate led groups of unskilled laborers to re-enter Nalaikh’s frozen soil in search of untapped coal deposits.
“Miners risk their lives and health everyday and live in poverty as their work contributes to a pollution problem that has reached catastrophic levels—regularly five times worse than Beijing.”
Miners bag and shuttle coal sometimes hundreds of meters below the surface.
Wooden frames keep the mines supported, but there are accidents each year where miners are killed.
Miners work into the night when temperatures can reach -40 degrees Fahrenheit.
These images are meant to shed light on the realities of contemporary life in urban Mongolia. Nalaikh is a city where urban and rural lifestyles intersect and where government corruption and neglect run rampant. Miners risk their lives and health everyday and live in poverty as their work contributes to a pollution problem that has reached catastrophic levels—regularly five times worse than Beijing.
While nomadic culture has certainly shaped contemporary Mongolian identities, the majority of Mongolia’s population now lives in an urban setting. Mongolian herders often express pride and freedom their lifestyles afford them. Speaking with Ganzorig, a miner at Nalaikh, he explained that even though he realizes that he risks his life working in the mines, “There’s no other choice.”
“There’s no other choice.”
Speaking with Ganzorig, a miner at Nalaikh, he explained that even though he realizes that he risks his life working in the mines, “There’s no other choice.”
After the coal is mined in Nalaikh, it is driven to distribution centers in Ulaanbaatar where it is broken down by hand and hammer into smaller pieces to be sold by the kilo.
One of Ulaanbaatar’s ger districts at sunrise during a relatively smogless day. On a good day, the wind will blow the coal smoke away from Ulaanbaatar.
On a bad pollution day, which is much more common during the winter, Ulaanbaatar’s location in a valley surrounded by mountains keeps the city’s smog trapped.