| Jezkazgan / Zhezkazgan Жезқазған |
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Jezkazgan / Zhezkazgan
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Kazakhstan | ||
| Province | Karagandy Province | ||
| Founded | 1938 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Akim (mayor) | Berik Abdygalijew | ||
| Population (1999) | |||
| • Total | 90,000 | ||
| Time zone | BTT (UTC+6) | ||
| Postal code | 100600 | ||
| Area code(s) | +7 7102 | ||
| Website | http://www.jezkazgan.kz | ||
Jezkazgan or Zhezkazgan (Kazakh: Жезқазған / Jezqazğan), formerly known as Dzhezkazgan (Russian: Джезказган, until 1992), is a city in Karagandy Province, Kazakhstan, on a reservoir of the Kara-Kengir River. The city population is of 90,000 (1999 census). Its urban area includes the neighbouring mining town of Satpayev, for a total city population of 148,700.
55% of Jezkagan population are Kazakhs, 30% Russians, with smaller minorities of Ukrainians, Germans, Chechens and Koreans.
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Jezkazgan is situated in the very heart of the Kazakh upland, far away from a big river. It has an extreme continental climate. The average temperature ranges from 24 °C (75 °F) in July to −16 °C (3 °F) in January.
| Climate data for Dzhezkazgan | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | −11 (12) |
−9 (15) |
−2 (29) |
13 (56) |
23 (74) |
29 (85) |
32 (89) |
29 (85) |
23 (73) |
12 (54) |
1 (33) |
−8 (18) |
11.1 (51.9) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −21 (−6) |
−20 (−4) |
−13 (9) |
−1 (31) |
7 (44) |
12 (54) |
14 (58) |
12 (54) |
5 (41) |
−2 (28) |
−10 (14) |
−18 (−1) |
−2.9 (26.8) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 15 (0.6) |
15 (0.6) |
25 (1) |
8 (0.3) |
15 (0.6) |
23 (0.9) |
20 (0.8) |
8 (0.3) |
8 (0.3) |
18 (0.7) |
10 (0.4) |
13 (0.5) |
178 (7) |
| Source: Weatherbase [1] | |||||||||||||
The city was created in 1938 in connection with the exploitation of the rich local copper deposits. In 1973 a large mining and metallurgical complex was constructed to the southeast to smelt the copper that until then had been sent elsewhere for processing. Other metal ores mined and processed locally are manganese, iron and gold.
During the Soviet era, Jezkazgan was the site of a Gulag labor camp, Kengir, mentioned in Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book The Gulag Archipelago, and Alexander Dolgun's "An American In The Gulag".
Today the city is the headquarters of the copper conglomerate Kazakhmys, the city's main employer. The company has subsidiaries in China, Russia and the United Kingdom and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. There is a power station, Kazakhmys Power Plant with generation capacity of 207 MW and a 220 metres tall main chimney.
Although Jezkazgan is centrally located in the country, it has limited connections to the other regions by rail, except for a rail line to the regional capital city Karaganda. Jezkazgan is connected by road to the cities Karaganda (by class-B European route E018), Kyzylorda and Arkalyk (both by the European route E123). The city is accessible by air via Zhezkazgan Airport.
The Baikonur Cosmodrome lies 400 kilometres (250 mi) to the south west and, by tradition, every cosmonaut plants a tree in Jezkazgan's Seyfullin-Boulevard to mark his safe return from space.
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