Hello from Kazakhstan!

[foolishboy]

Hiya everybody, been here two weeks already, and still been keeping an eye on PSB and the rest of the normal world. Now have 6 more weeks to go before I can come home again, hopefully the snows hold off as long as possible cos its already getting damn cold.
Anyhows my digital camera died on the flight over from Dubai, so the only handful of pics I have so far are from around site on the mobile, still should give you a bit of an idea of how barren the country is maybe.

View across the grass steppes to one of the neighbouring mines waste dumps

Kazakkh Fire Extinguisher, boring I know haha

Our brand new state of the art Russian Concrete Batch Plant- is crap of course

The batch plant dog, shes only a puppy, but there are dogs everywhere on site.

Underground Tag board

A view in another direction of yet another neighbouring mines waste dump

One of the best things about this place, the sunset and sunrises, beautiful!

Ill try and take more pics over the next few weeks, and some of in town too when I finally get the chance to go exploring in there.
In the mean time Ill keep learning my russian

[sathid]

central asian engrish.

So....It's niiice!?

[Aphex]

VERY NAAAARSE....

When puppy is big... err dog... i hev hkim for meke sexy taarme!

[Ajax]

Looks kinda dead. Are there many people on site there?

[chief wiggum]

where's borat?

[Scoundrel]

Any strip joints?

[Stoneville]

Well hello there

Don't forget to try and get piccies of Borat for me when you go to town

[foolishboy]

Alright time to answer a few questions then.

No I havent found Borat, I have found two Marat's though but thats as close as it gets so far, the locals really didnt like the movie at all, which is funny cos in a lot of ways the reality is oh so much worse!

Havent found any strip joints in Khromtau, might be a few in the bigger cities like Aktobe and Almaty or Astana, but almost all the women are hot, suprisingly so, although considering the food youd be doing well to ever get fat off what they eat, is crap!

Heaps of locals on site, verry few aussies, only normally about 5 or 6 of us on a crew and then a handful more in more senior management, but were only meant to be here for 27months training the locals to mine our way, yeah right, there will be ex pats working here until the mine reaches its life expectancy in roughly 20yrs.

As you can see from the pics its a prety barren desolute sort of country out this way, Khromtau is in north western Kazakhstan, its a wamer more forrested region around Almaty, but there is also a massive mountain range just outside of Almaty too, here the biggest hills are the massive waste dumps from all the other mines that surround us. And they really dont like us being here either haha, this lease was one they forgot to renew and the company snatched up before they could do anything about it. So were not very popular with the local authorities, the locals love working for us though. We pay better and the conditions are about 20 times better and safer than what the local mines normally work with. Plus we mine a hell of a lot faster than they have ever seen in this country before.

As for the food, it is aweful, meat is always cooked until it is dry, pasta is never served with any sauces just plain and everything is cooked in oil and with heaps of flax as well apparently. Suffice to say that at the moment Bali Belly would be preferable to Kazkah belly.

Ill be hanging out for Big Mac when I fly back to Dubai on my way home.

[Ace]

tatoowine?

[Stu]

Two quick ones Scorpo...
What are you mining?
And who do you work for?

[foolishboy]

Two quick ones Scorpo...
What are you mining?
And who do you work for?[/b]

Were mining Chromite, Khromtau the local town actually means Chrome Mountain and there are quite a few other mines here, all mining the same thing. Which is the other reason the authorites dont like us, were basically mining an outcropping finger of what they see as their ore body haha.

Byrnecut did the hiring, but now that Im here I believe Im actually working for CAMS or Central Asian Mining which is a joint venture between Vokshod Mining and Oriel. Basically a British led conostrium with some Kazakh partners.

Oh and the tax is only 10% here

[Gronk]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stu @ Oct 5 2007, 09:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Two quick ones Scorpo...
What are you mining?
And who do you work for?[/b]

Were mining Chromite, Khromtau the local town actually means Chrome Mountain and there are quite a few other mines here, all mining the same thing. Which is the other reason the authorites dont like us, were basically mining an outcropping finger of what they see as their ore body haha.

Byrnecut did the hiring, but now that Im here I believe Im actually working for CAMS or Central Asian Mining which is a joint venture between Vokshod Mining and Oriel. Basically a British led conostrium with some Kazakh partners.

Oh and the tax is only 10% here
[/b][/quote]

Small World.

I&#39;m doing some vent design for there at the moment.

Does the ambient portal intake air really reach -40C? No wonder you need that heater bank.

[thro]

Hey did you see my mate&#39;s kazak pics from last year?










Enjoy the coming winter months

[Aphex]

thro there was no need for that. You&#39;ve ruined it for hi (and us) now

[Daise]

did you pack your flouro G-banger?


Eek, looks like a wasteland!

How long will you be there for?