Baganuur

Baganuur District Багануур дүүрэг ᠪᠠᠭᠠᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷᠲᠡᠭᠦᠷᠭᠡ
Municipal District
A sign on a road leading to Baganuur A sign on a road leading to Baganuur
Country	Mongolia
Municipality	Ulaanbaatar
Time zone	UTC + 8 (UTC+8)
Area code(s)	+976 (0) 21

Baganuur (Mongolian: Багануур, ᠪᠠᠭᠠᠨᠠᠭᠤᠷ, Little Lake) is one of nine düüregs (districts) of the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. It is subdivided into four khoroos (subdistricts).

Baganuur is actually a separate city, located as an exclave of 620 km² at the border between the Töv and Khentii aimags. It was created as a Soviet military base. Later Soviet Union built the largest open pit coal mine in Mongolia. Baganuur city is one of the largest industrial production locations in Mongolia, and would rank among the country's ten largest cities. There are efforts under way to separate its administration from the capital to make it an independent city.

Transportation

Baganuur is the endpoint of a side line of the Trans-Mongolian Railway, which connects to the main line in Bagakhangai. Due to high operation cost, Mongolian railway had stopped the passenger trains from UB-Baganuur-UB though freight trains are normally transporting coal to UB and other neighbouring towns. Baganuur is also accessible via 138 km of paved road completed in 2004.

2008 methanol scare

On December 31, 2007, Baganuur became the center of a massive methanol poisoning case that stemmed from substandard production methods of a local vodka manufacturer. The poison killed 14 people and hospitalized dozens of others. This case led to a complete ban of vodka sales in Ulaanbaatar for several days, and also highlighted one of Mongolia's food safety problems.