Novaya Chara (russian: Новая Чара) is an urban locality (an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

) in

Kalarsky District Kalarsky District (russian: Каларский район) is an administrativeRegistry of the Administrative-Territorial Units and the Inhabited Localities and municipalLaw #316-ZZK district (raion A raion (also spelt rayon) is a type of adm ...

Zabaykalsky Krai Zabaykalsky Krai ( rus, Забайкальский край, r=Zabaikal'skii krai, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲskʲɪj kraj, lit. "Transbaikal krai"; bua, Yбэр Байгалай хизаар, Uber Baigalai Xizaar) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) t ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, located in the basin of the

Chara River , image = 2000 Charoite 613.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = View of the river and piece of charoite , pushpin_map = Russia Sakha Republic , pushpin_map_size = , pushpin_map_caption= Location ...

, in the eastern parts of

Stanovoy Range The Stanovoy Range (russian: Станово́й хребе́т, ''Stanovoy khrebet''; sah, Сир кура; ), is a mountain range located in the Sakha Republic and Amur Oblast, Far Eastern Federal District. It is also known as Sükebayatur a ...

, approximately in a straight line northeast of the

krai A krai or kray (; russian: край, , ''kraya'') is one of the types of federal subjects of modern Russia, and was a type of geographical administrative division in the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR. Etymologically, the word is relat ...

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or ...

of Chita, and from the district's administrative center of Chara. Population:

History

It was founded in connection to the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline in the 1980s, near the older village of Chara, named for the river on which it stood. The station and settlement were built by workers from the

Kazakh SSR ; kk, Қазақ Советтік Социалистік Республикасы) *1991: Republic of Kazakhstan (russian: Республика Казахстан; kk, Қазақстан Республикасы) , linking_name = the ...

; as part of the BAM project, sections of the route were placed under the patronage of

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...

brigades from different parts of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Regular rail traffic from

Tynda Tynda (russian: Ты́нда) is a town in Amur Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Blagoveshchensk. It is an important railway junction, informally referred to as the capital of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Its population has declined sharply in ...

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast ( rus, Аму́рская о́бласть, r=Amurskaya oblast, p=ɐˈmurskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrative ...

to Novaya Chara began in 1988; traffic from the west of the settlement on the section from

Severobaykalsk Severobaikalsk (russian: Северобайка́льск; bua, Хойто-Байгал, ''Khoito-Baigal'', mn, Хойдбайгал, ''Khoidbaigal'') is a town in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the northern end of Lake Baikal at ...

started in 1989. The completion of the BAM did not bring the expected economic development to the area, and with the economic crisis of the late 1980s, around half the population left. Nearby are the Udokan copper deposit, Chineysky vanadium deposit and Unkur silver-copper deposit.

Tourism

Novaya Chara is the starting point for

trekking Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on one's back, while hiking for more than a day. It is often an extended journey, and may involve camping outdoors. In North America tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain h ...

tours in the Kodar Mountains, as well as the Chara Sands, a area of sand dunes northwest of the settlement, across the river.

Economy

Novaya Chara's only real economic activity centers on its situation as an important station on the BAM. However, there is potential for the settlement to become the center for a mining region currently under development, with a branch line built between 1998 and 2002 from Novaya Chara to the

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( pas ...

, and

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

mine Chineyskoye. The Chineyskoye mine contains both Russia's largest titanium deposit, and the world's largest recorded vanadium deposit. Due to financing problems with the mines, located at an altitude of over , the branch line has been poorly maintained and damaged by landslides, meaning that in 2008 only were in use; with trucks being used to transport ore to the railhead. Repair and reconstruction of the line is currently being undertaken. Also on this branch line are the

rare-earth metal The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or (in context) rare-earth oxides or sometimes the lanthanides (yttrium and scandium are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly-indistinguishable lustrous sil ...

mine Katuginskoye, iron ore mine Sulumatskoye, and large

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

deposits at Chitkanda.Article from Sergey Rinchinov
from metaltorg.ru, October 17, 2008 (Russian) Around south of Novaya Chara is the Udokan copper deposit, which is planned to be mined in future. Around to the south west of Novaya Chara is the Unkur silver and copper deposit, which is currently under exploration. The settlement is also serviced by a small airport.

References

{{Use mdy dates, date=January 2013 Urban-type settlements in Zabaykalsky Krai