Thank you very much.

This channel should easily have 500 000 subscribers or even a million. It probably will in time.

The reason this channel doesn't have those subs is because there are well over 200 channels that "explore places"

@@TVRExploring You are fantastic.

A lot, not a ton.

@@simontay4851 Nope... Pretty sure the actual nomenclature is; "Shit-ton". :-)

@Evanscreek Brahman Thank you. I'm glad you found us as well!

Thank you. Yes, there just doesn't seem to be that much interest from viewers for the stuff in the more exotic locations... I think that one of my best videos ever is from the sulfur mine at Ijen in Indonesia and yet it has very few views.

Ha, as you know all too well, sometimes the trips to the mines are better than the abandoned mines themselves. Let's hope that is not the case for us this summer! Fortunately, I got great scenery and a great mine with this one.

Yes, it was an absolutely enormous mine. People are very friendly and helpful in all of the 'Stans… They saved our asses on more than one occasion when we had major vehicle problems.

Haha, well, we got stuck in a blizzard a couple of days later. So, don't think you had all of the fun to yourself... Yes, the whole stretch along the Panj was pretty incredible. I haven't been to western Kazakhstan, but I'd like to see it someday.

TVR Exploring “Gly”: It’s kind of flat, very similar to the Midwest USA. In the west the Volga River is like the Mississippi of Russia. I spent most of my time near the Caspian Sea.

Thank you. I'm glad you like the foreign mines... They are some of my favorites as well.

That's interesting about the scrappers avoiding the uranium. When we visited the Chernobyl site, scrappers had started working on it despite the radioactivity. I guess Ukrainian scrappers are of a different caliber...

The building with the gold dome is a mosque. Given how few people there still are here, it is quite possible it is indeed the same guy.

Thank you very much.

You do realize this has all been recorded already... but yes that being said im with you on that one

Yes,careful was for any exploration.New it wasn't live.lol

Thank you. Yes, there is some similarity there...

I appreciate you weighing in on that because lead refining is way outside of my sphere of knowledge. In the next video, I go through the mill in more detail. You'll see some scrappers at work also and can see how they're doing so much damage.

@@TVRExploring I'll see what I can do to explain that segment further! I'm quite familiar with the beneficiation process up until the concentrates are shipped. Smelting, no clue. I'm not a metallurgist.

I was about to make an additional comment saying the same thing. That is a funny line. You are such a lucky guy to have a woman who shares in your mine exploring adventures. You have been to many interesting places! Thanks for the videos!

@tarf1a Thank you. She's not too keen on going underground, but she's a good sport about the rest of it...

@@TVRExploring The only place to be quick about going underground is Cooper Pedy in Outback South Australia 🇦🇺, so you can get away from the scorching heat. Nearly all the locals live underground and you can stay in underground hotels. It's all about chasing the opals.

Hehehehe I was all I want one!! 🥰

I'm glad you had that feeling... I figured that would be a lot more interesting for me to narrate over than me just talking to the camera.

Thank you!

Yes, I wish I had been into abandoned mines when I was still living in the UK.

Thank you very much. Yes, the geology was quite unusual for me as well... Yes, those old prospectors had some real knowledge and talent, to be sure. Like you said, I wish we could quantify those skills as well. You must have some interesting stories from your work and travels?

Well, those buildings were ravaged by scrappers looking for any metal they could find. That's why they're in such bad shape.

You have an Italian, I have an Okie....🤔

Haha, it sounds like you and I have similar luck! Plenty of days I'd trade the Italian temper for an Okie!

Haha, I'll try to bring her along more often... I'm glad that you like these mines in other countries. It is interesting to see those sorts of differences you mentioned. One big thing I see is that labor is cheap and plentiful in many of these countries and machinery is expensive and difficult to obtain (which is pretty much the opposite of what we see with skilled labor in the US). So, some of these mines are incredibly labor-intensive in a way that would never work in a place like the US.

I appreciate that very much. Thanks.

Ryan McWilliams I've known a few who moved here and they are very nice people

It's been the focal point of British Geopolitics ever since the 18th century Great Game. How do you expect any society to react to being in an area of perpetual war?

All dalmatians are dogs not all dogs are dalmatians. I know this. But like i said there are some crazy people there ruining it for everybody else

@@AbandonedMaine Yeah the British did it...lol. The muslims that ruin everything they touch had nothing to do with it. Sure thing.

@@ce2flaco The largest amount of opium that is causing the drug epidemic in the west comes out of the British held territory in Afghanistan.

Thank you very much. Yes, it is a beautiful part of the world... Believe it or not, all of that destruction is from scrappers. I'll show you a closer look at how they operate in the third video.

Yes, it blows my mind how some of these mines were located... You've got the scenario right about how this site was stripped. In the next video, you'll see some scrappers picking over the little that is left.

Thank you. I've been to all of the countries around Mongolia, but I haven't quite made it there yet...

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. With a Western passport, getting visas to this part of the world is easy. We flew from Rome to Budapest to Astana (recently renamed Nur Sultan) and then down to Almaty where we picked up the Russian 4WD. With your paperwork in order, crossing the borders is easy... We didn't get hit with demands for bribes at a single border crossing.

Yes, it is mostly unspoiled out in that part of the world...

Thank you for the kind words. The satellite views of that mine in Colorado were very interesting (and, yes, quite similar).

It amazes me where some of the old prospectors ended up all over the world. They always seem to be in the most rugged terrain in the middle of nowhere. Haha, yes, the Italian is a good sport about these sorts of trips...

Thank you.

Yes, it is a real frontier out there still...

Sampling so you can get arrested in a foriegn country?

It was a thriving town. Very difficult to imagine that now...

In case anyone doesn’t know, *Bryce* was a 3D/terrain modeler about 20 years ago for MacOS...

That sounds right... It was deep!

I was surprised by the way the pit was dug as well. There were no easier access points that I saw, unless a haulage adit (which would make the most sense) was covered up in that waste rock pile on the outside.

Thank you.

That sounds like a fantastic trip... Seriously. No, this wasn't the Khyber Pass. We were farther north than that near the Wakhan corridor. I did the Khyber Pass a few years ago, but as I understand it, Westerners can no longer get permission to transit that route.

That's an interesting thought. After the collapse of the USSR, all that machinery was probably carried away, one piece at a time, by hand. No trace of it.

@@Live.Vibe.Lasers This channel and it's curator is an awesome endeavor for sure. The boss has extremely not big by any means but HUGE BALLZ! I love watching and participating in all of the entries made by him. It's a bazillion times way more intensely exciting to go down into the Adits I was and still am too freekin' clucking chicken to even think about it. Plus, the author of this channel just does what he does the cool way and not so technically boring like the old days of some TV show narrator that puts everyone to sleep. What I'm trying to get across here is these vids are killer action packed and on the edge of ones seat frightening all in a safe place of your home couch! This and Foresty Forrest and even Wonder Hussy channels are some of my very favorites, next to any and all TRUE Biblical Archeology programs. And that's a good thang!! Shalom from NW Montana USA by the shoreline of Flathead Lake ;)

@Cheycasters Yes, in hindsight, I wish that I had brought the drone with me. However, at the time, I was concerned about it getting confiscated at a border crossing. I really appreciate the support and kind words.

Yes, not a place I would want to live or work in - even now...

Yes, there was a huge mill here, but you can see what the scrappers reduced it to!

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Materials recycling is only part of the deterioration of the buildings. Extremely poor quality construction materials is/was the biggest problem.

Yes, the buildings were torn apart so that every possible scrap of metal could be extracted.

Yes, it was a massive operation.

Same cool, retro futuristic look...

No, it wasn't poor concrete. Scrappers have absolutely ravaged this site in order to extract every bit of metal that they could.

Nah, I live in Italy most of the year. So, it was from Italy, which is still far, but not as far as going from California.

How old are those techniques? In other words, when did they come into common practice?

@@TVRExploring I'm honestly not sure, but post-WWII.

Cool, I'll have to check her out...

Awesome! Thanks!

I'll try to bring the Italian along on more trips... She's not too keen on going underground, but I can tell her that it's for the viewers and not for me. How can she say no to that?

I live in Southern California. Take a trip to Buffalo, New York and you'll kiss the ground you drive on in California

@@jam9297 lol, I just made the same comment about Pennsylvania. We are definitely doing it wrong.

@Prospector Josh How sadly accurate...

That was all scrappers ravaging the buildings for every possible piece of metal.