After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, independent Ukraine no longer needed so many industrial sites — even whole cities became abandoned. The Another.kiev urbex photo expedition visited two of the most exciting and impressive abandoned opencast mines in Ukraine, and they really do look post-apocalyptic. Unlike the abandoned machinery graveyards we explored in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, these iron giants are not polluted by radiation, and they are easy prey for looters.
Konstantynovsky open-pit mine
This is a flooded open-pit mine, with a lot of abandoned mining machinery descending step by step to the bottom. This incredible valley of Soviet iron dinosaurs is situated in central Ukraine, next to the town of Alexandria.
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This is the youngest coal mine of “Alexandriaugol,” put into operation in 1987. In its best days, it produced more than a million tons of coal per year. Since 2010 the mine has been out of operation and has gradually been flooded. Here you can see a mothballed 16-bucket rotary excavator, the ERSHRD-5250, with a mass of 4100 tons, a height of more than 30 m, and a conveyor flight length of 190 m. The German multi-bucket chain excavator TAKRAF ERs 1120 is also available for inspection.
We stole a pontoon from a dredger on the beach and sailed out to climb onto the excavator.
One of our team went to climb the ERSHRD-5250.
Nobody needs them, and these giant machines will soon be cut up and sold for scrap metal.
Abandoned opencast brown coal mine Morozovskiy
The abandoned Morozovskiy opencast brown coal mine is located near the city of Oleksandriya (Kirovograd oblast).
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Морозовский угольный разрез
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There are no roads near the mine, so we could only explore it with a 4×4 Niva. This car was made in the USSR, but it is still the best for exploring. Cheap and cheerful.
The enterprise is being liquidated, and coal mining has not been carried out for 5 years, despite the fact that the brown coal reserves would be sufficient for at least another 20 years of active mining.
The mine is flooded with groundwater. Several of the machines were built before the Second World War.
We had an inflatable boat with us, so we went down to the water and made our way out to one of the excavators.
It is hard to imagine how much human labor was needed to build such a huge thing. If you ever want to see it while you are visiting Ukraine, contact us. We will try to help you.
