Qaraghandy

Qaraghandy or Karaganda (both: kär'əgän`də), city (1993 est. pop. 596,000), in central Kazakhstan, on the Trans-Kazakhstan RR. It consists of about 50 coal-mining settlements scattered around the central part of the city, and it is a leading industrial and cultural center of Kazakhstan. Its industries include iron and steel plants, flour mills, food and beverage plants, and factories that produce mining equipment, building materials, machinery, and footwear. Qaraghandy was founded in 1857 as a copper-mining settlement. The Qaraghandy coal basin, developed in the late 1920s, is a major producer of bituminous coal; near the city is apower station. The Irtysh-Qaraghandy Canal supplies the city with water.

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Qaraghandy

 or Karaganda

City (pop., 1999.: 436,900), central Kazakhstan. The first settlement appeared in 1856, and small-scale coal mining began the next year. Mining expanded rapidly in the early 1930s, and the town was made a city in 1934. Kazakhstan's second largest city, it consists of the old town, which grew up haphazardly around more than 20 mining settlements, and the new town, the region's cultural and administrative centre, which includes a university and medical and polytechnic institutes.