city, northern Mongolia. It lies in a valley between the Selenge and Orhon rivers about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Ulaanbaatar. Erdenet is a major industrial centre that was organized in 1973 and built in the mid-1970s as a joint Soviet-Mongolian venture. Founded mainly to exploit the area's huge deposits of copper and molybdenum ore, Erdenet has a gigantic ore-mining and ore-dressing complex that began operation in the late 1970s. Other industries include a carpet factory, a food-processing plant, and a timber-processing industry. Erdenet is connected with the city of Darhan by the Trans-Mongolian Railway. Pop. (1991 est.) 48,500.