Bilibino

Bilibino (Russian: Били́бино) is a town and the administrative center of Bilibinsky District in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located at the confluence of the Karalveyem and Bolshoy Keperveyem Rivers (Kolyma's basin), 625 kilometers (388 mi) northwest of Anadyr, the administrative center of the autonomous okrug. With a population of 5,506 as of the 2010 Census, and an estimated population as of 1 January 2015 of 5,592, it is the second largest town in the autonomous okrug after Anadyr.

Geography

Bilibino is located at the transition zone between the conifer forest and the tundra, in the Chuvan Mountains.

History

As with much of the rest of Chukotka, the earliest human remains found in the region around Bilibino have been dated to the Early Neolithic, with camp sites having been excavated at Orlovka 2, a site on the banks of the Orlovka River, as well as at Lakes Tytyl and Ilirney.

Interest in the area around the present day site of the town began in the 1920s when prospectors including Soviet geologist Yury Bilibin discovered gold in the region and began to make assessments regarding the commercial viability of its extraction. In March 1955, gold mining operations commenced and the construction of a settlement started, though at this stage it was little more than a collection of geologists' and prospectors' tents, who had originally been based in Seymchan. Because of his discovery of gold in the region, particularly within the vicinity of the Bolshoy Anyuy and Maly Anyuy Rivers, the geologists named the new settlement after Yury Bilibin, and the new name was officially adopted in February 1956. On September 6, 1958, Bilibino was granted urban-type settlement status.