15 facts you have not heard about Ekibastuz
1. Ekibastuz is the place in Kazakhstan where the largest coal area was found. It is in the basin of 155 km square, the length of 24 km and the maximum width of 8.5 km. The total geologic stock is approximately 10 billion tons.
2. “Bogatyr” coal mine in Ekibastuz is the biggest coal mine in Kazakhstan and one of the biggest in the world. Its capacity is 50 million tons a year.
3. The first bucket used to drag coal in Ekibastuz, at the present time, is the monument in the square near the railway station.
4. On 12 June 1957 Ekibastuzkomir town got the status of a city and it was called Ekibastuz.
5. In January 1967 100 000 tons of coal was produced in Ekibastuz coal basin.
6. In 1976 Ekibastuz coal basin was in the 3rd place among coal basins of the USSR.
7. In 1985 “Bogatyr” coal mine of Ekibastuz was listed in the Guinness World Records as the biggest coal mine in the world.
8. In 1988 the coal production was 89,7 million tons, this figure formed 12% of the coal production of the USSR.
9. “Ekibastuzkomir” got ahead countries like the USA, Germany and Poland in coal producing. Coal was produced with open stoping method in these countries too.
10. Nowadays “Bogatyr Coal Mine” is on the top in coal field in Kazakhstan. There are 14 power station of Kazakhstan and 6 power stations of Russia.
11. SDPS-2 (State District Power Station) in Ekibastuz is the longest funnel in the world. Its length is 419,7 meters. It takes about 4 hours to go up to the top of the tower. If you compare with the famous Eiffel Tower, SDPS-2 is higher for 100 meters. The power and capacity of the SDPS-2 equal to great space-launch complexes like Baikonur or other strategic important complexes.
12.Salt Water Lake situated on the eastern part has been called “Ekibastuz” in documents for a long time, before the opening of the black coal mine in the region. According to this fact, the black coal mine found in this place and the nearest town and city were called “Ekibastuz”.
13. Ekibastuz is the first city where the first modern technologies to produce “black gold” were born and new facilities were studied.
14. A great historian, who dedicated his life to collect folkloric heritage of Kazakh people, to study human history, East and West classic poetry, a scientist, a poet, a philosopher, a public person Mashkhur Zhusip Kopeiuly was born here. Mashkhur Zhusip Kopeiuly Mausoleum is in Eskeldi, 18 km away from the north-west of Zhanazhol village.
15. The first Islamic missionary’s generation, a philosopher, a teacher and Mashkhur Zhusip’s student Isabek Ishan Khazret Mausoleum is situated in Kundykol village, Ekibastuz region.