Sary-Bulak Gorge

The Sary-Bulak Gorge is a steep limestone gorge in the foothills of the Talas Alatau, in the Sary-Bulak District of the Irad Special Economic Zone, about 20 kilometers south-south-west of Talas. Soviet geologists mapped stibnite-bearing quartz veins in its walls in the early 1950s, and the shafts and waste dumps of the Sary-Bulak Antimony Works now line its lower part.^[1] A haul road and a rail spur run along the gorge floor to the mine and the village of Sary-Bulak; the spur comes in from the upper Urmaral valley, while the road crosses the ridge from the mouth of the Kara-Suu Canyon. Streams leaving the gorge carry elevated arsenic and antimony.^[2]

References

1. ^ Talas State University Press (2016). Mining and Metallurgy in the Talas Valley from Shelji to Sary-Bulak. Talas.
2. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2018). Air Quality in the Sary-Bulak Industrial Corridor. Report to the Secretary-General. Kara-Oi.