Ekibastuz

Mining town in Pavlodar oblast (region) in northeastern Kazakhstan; population (2004) 119,500. Ekibastuz is situated 125 km/78 mi southwest of Pavlodar on the South Siberian railway. It is the centre of a major mining area, with gold, non-ferrous metals and, primarily, coal.

Coal was discovered at Ekibastuz in 1876, and was mined sporadically thereafter; large-scale exploitation only took place from 1953 onwards. The coal has a very high ash content and is unsuitable for coking, but is cheap to extract by opencast methods, and is used to fuel power stations here and in Pavlodar.