Don’t Blast the Mountains: People Rise to Defend the Jewel of Bashkortostan — the Kyrktytau Ridge

Dozens of letters have already arrived from readers in our long-suffering Urals. As always, big business is trying to “develop” the untouched corners of wilderness in order to reap even more profit! On one side, people in Sverdlovsk Oblast are now resisting the creation of a gigantic landfill, and on the other, at the border of Bashkortostan and Chelyabinsk Oblast, people are fighting a major mining and processing plant (a copper GOK). Under threat is one of the Urals’ most sacred places—the Kyrktytau Ridge with its unique wildlife.

Yes, comrades, this is about destroying yet another sanctuary of wildlife!

I have previously written that in the coming years we will see big business sink its teeth into the last wildlife refuges to mine rare-earth resources! The global economy is restructuring for “green energy,” which requires industrial volumes of rare metals and elements. The trouble is that almost all of them lie beneath nature reserves, beneath the most cherished pockets of wilderness where animals and plants can still hide from humankind.

The Kyrktytau Ridge is not officially listed as a protected natural area, but it borders reserve lands. Local residents have long tried to secure its designation as a specially protected territory, but in vain. Instead, the proposal is to blow up the ridge to extract its natural resources!

The Battle for Kyrktytau—The Pearl of Bashkiria

News of a copper GOK on Kyrktytau emerged in the spring of 2025, when the Russian Copper Company JSC (RMK) announced the resumption of geological exploration in these mountains. It was this very company that, through its Alexandrinsk Mining Company, won the 2019 auction for the right to develop the Salavat deposit at the foot of Kyrktytau. In other words, the “capitalist paw” was laid on these wondrous lands many years ago, and the “development” has been planned for a long time, methodically!

In fact, the license for exploration and mining of copper-porphyry ore was issued for 25 years—until 2044. Back in 2020 people did not remain silent and protested against the destruction of the wildlife refuge; against this backdrop the company halted work and declared that it was abandoning the project. Allegedly, this was not because of public dissatisfaction but because of the low copper content here (about 0.5 %). In short, they left “gracefully.”

And now, five years later, when the environmental community in the country is suppressed and society has almost no strength left to fight, and big business is shamelessly tearing apart protected lands, RMK has returned to Kyrktytau. Initially, plans called for investing about 50 billion rubles in building the GOK; current press releases cite 40 billion rubles.

I think we need to clarify in more detail whether these funds include state subsidies and grants. If they do, the motives behind such an intrusive push to “develop” the ridge become even clearer.

Before I tell you about Kyrktytau’s treasure value, let’s talk a little about the “sphere of interests.” The Salavat copper-porphyry deposit at the foot of Kyrktytau contains roughly 993 thousand tonnes of copper. But the ore here is poor—less than 0.5 % content, meaning that in one tonne of such ore there will be less than 5 kg of copper. Everything else is barren rock that must be crushed, processed, leached with acids, and so on!

Thus, to extract the stated volume (993 thousand tonnes) about 208 million tonnes of ore will have to be processed! In other words, 99.5 % of the extracted rock mass will become waste. Now imagine how that will affect the wilderness.

Ancient forests will have to be cut down for the pit and infrastructure. Locals say that some suspicious logging has already begun: a certain company called “Selena” is clearing forest in the Kyrktytau area. Accordingly, after the forests are destroyed, animals and plants will begin to die out. And the open-pit method, when huge holes remain after the ore is removed, changes the entire topography of the surrounding area, including drying out the land. The next reaction is the death of all surrounding ecosystems and gradual degradation due to acute water shortage.

Contamination of drinking water resources will also begin: the copper mine threatens, above all, the entire river system of Kyrktytau. On the slopes of the ridge rise the Bolshoy and Maly Kizil rivers, which feed the Ural River. The residents of Sibay and Magnitogorsk drink this water. If GOK effluents enter the Kizils, the consequences will be felt far beyond the pit.

One must understand that copper mining is an extremely water-intensive and, in this respect, dangerous process. The rocks here contain associated toxic elements, such as compounds of arsenic, antimony, and lead. During blasting and leaching (if it is used) heavy metals can be washed out and enter the groundwater.

The company assures that it will not discharge anything into the rivers, that there will supposedly be a closed-loop water supply system and reliable treatment facilities. I am, however, extremely skeptical—simply from the experience of fighting other similar projects across the country and from the consequences that actually emerge later at older sites! Nothing can be brought back: once nature is destroyed, it’s gone. And yes, these processes are not fast—say, a couple of decades until irreversible consequences. By that time the “money has been laundered” and the beneficiaries are relaxing somewhere in Cypriot villas, enjoying the Mediterranean Sea.

Let’s put it this way: even with modern design there are leaks and filtration of poisons into the soil. No one can guarantee that this will not happen! I just found information in the publication “Trudovaya Oborona,” which says that during beneficiation 60–95 % of the material goes to tailings, and without reliable dewatering and isolation they inevitably threaten contamination of underground horizons. In practice, therefore, it is extremely difficult to completely eliminate leaks.

Therefore, any promises by the company are just words. If you look at the chronicle of such accidents, it becomes clear that my criticism is not skepticism but a fully objective precaution.

The main argument that must be made AGAINST the destruction of the Kyrktytau Ridge is the risk of being left completely without clean water. With any leaks, people will actually drink poisoned water and give it to their children. And they may not notice right away: the real consequences will become apparent only when children start coughing up pieces of their lungs along with blood, and adults discuss yet another neighbor who has died of cancer. And I am not exaggerating about the children. The information bulletin of the State-run “TsOMiD” (Magnitogorsk) “Respiratory Disease Prevention Week” (November 2023) states that the share of such diseases in children is 29.2 % of all visits. This is for a number of South-Ural territories, including Magnitogorsk.

Years earlier (2019) respiratory diseases in children were confirmed by scientific studies: about 2,600 children per 10,000. These data are from “Analysis of Health Indicators of Children in Magnitogorsk”—Bulletin of New Medical Technologies 2019 No. 5 (Dolgushina et al.). The national Russian average is about 1,650 cases per 10 thousand children.

Thus, children in the Southern Urals are already suffering en masse from respiratory complications. But instead of improving the environment and protecting the wildlife refuges, we are offered to BLOW UP unique mountain ridges to quicker extract the precious metals.

And when the new GOK begins to release columns of dust from dumps and tailings, what do you think our children will breathe? The Salavat deposit belongs to the copper-porphyry type; I agree that such ores are poor in sulfur and that pyrite sulfide content usually does not exceed 2 %.

BUT! The main risks lie elsewhere. What about PM₂.5/PM₁₀ dust aerosols with arsenic, lead, and cadmium that the wind will blow from the pit and dumps? What about acid drainage from tailings, when even a small dose of pyrite, oxidizing, forms H₂SO₄, which washes heavy metals into aquifers?

Thus, it is poisonous dust and acid runoff that will actually become the key threat to local residents and ecosystems. Or am I wrong?

The troubles from such a project do not end there.

Gradually, instead of wilderness, gigantic waste will appear at the copper development site. As I mentioned above, if less than 1 % of what is mined goes into metal, the remaining more than 200 million tonnes become waste! It will be placed as waste-rock dumps and a tailings storage facility. A tailings facility is essentially an artificial lake of toxic pulp (ground rock with reagents). The area of such an object can truly be measured in square kilometers, and the dam height in tens of meters.

Now imagine what will happen if the Kyrktytau tailings facility leaks or bursts: toxic pulp will rush straight into the rivers. Such accidents occur regularly around the world, and the consequences are CATASTROPHIC.

People are fighting now not for their own fates! They are speaking for our children, for posterity. It is to them that we will leave bald mountains, rivers turned green by chemicals, acid rain, and black hills of waste. In return, the region will temporarily receive investment, a few jobs, and promises from the company that “everything will be fine, modern technologies and no harm to nature.”

The Treasure House of the Urals

The Kyrktytau Ridge is one of the most picturesque corners of the Southern Urals. It stretches for more than 60 km along the border of Bashkiria and Chelyabinsk Oblast, parallel to the course of the Bolshoy Kizil River. Here are rocky peaks, deep gorges with fast rivers, and dense forests. These are exactly the kind of places film directors look for to capture virgin nature!

I have been to these places many times—it is hard to convey in words the uniqueness and beauty of the Southern Urals’ wilderness. The slopes of Kyrktytau are covered with mixed forests: birch groves give way to pine forests as the altitude rises. And I did not call this place a wildlife refuge for nothing, because it is here that numerous animals and plants—including those listed in the Red Book—can hide from humans: elk, roe deer, lynxes, and the master of the Russian taiga—the brown bear.

Part of the territory near Kyrktytau is protected by the state: the vast South Ural Nature Reserve spreads out here, occupying more than 250 thousand hectares. The entire ridge must be included in this reserve, placed under federal protection, and not handed over to business for the sake of momentary profit.

The copper mining itself is planned, as I understand it, a few kilometers from Lake Bannoye (Yaktykul), which is the deepest lake in Bashkiria. Sheer folly: they thought of placing heavy industry in such a unique spot. Lake Bannoye is renowned for its crystal-clear water and healing properties thanks to its springs and sapropel mud. One must understand that the water horizons here are interconnected and any anomaly will affect the entire basin. 

And now business will burst in here to blow up and destroy one of Mother Nature’s last havens and wild refuges. This is what people are fighting for! This is what they want to leave to their children, not toxic tailings dumps and slag instead of a mighty ancient ridge.

It Is Our Duty to Help People!

People have united—and that is what matters most! This is a living example for all the inhabitants of our country. Back in 2020, during the first attempts by big business to seize the ridge, people formed a human chain a thousand strong and demanded that the wilderness be left in peace. A three-kilometer flag of Bashkortostan waved above the mountain—the very flag that had already brought victory to the defenders of Mount Kushtau.

At the end of August 2020, people forced RMK’s machinery to leave the Salavat deposit. But the deposit was simply mothballed so as to “hide the can” until society became weakened and suppressed.

And for all these five years people strove to have the Kyrktytau Ridge designated as a specially protected natural territory to firmly secure its right to exist. But it did not work out.

In the spring of 2025—here we go again: the battle has begun. Local residents are uniting and asking all the people of the country for help in defending their land.

And immediately, instead of dialog with the people, vile and brazen pressure and intimidation began. Some are taken away “for discussions,” others are simply threatened. I think a separate piece can be made about this over time—a whole chronicle of what local residents have to endure while being accused of every mortal sin for trying to protect the nature of their homeland.

Kyrktytau today stands on the brink of a great battle. That is what I see! On the scales are millions of tonnes of ore and billions of rubles versus ancient forests, clean water, and the future of our children.

When I was gathering information for this material, at the request of readers, I encountered hundreds of repetitions of one phrase that people pass to one another: “The Urals are tired!”

The Urals are tired. And the people are tired.

But if we win, the victory for Kyrktytau will be a triumph of love for one’s native land over greed.

© PAVEL PASHKOV