Zakamensk (Russian: Зака́менск; Buryat: Захаамин, Zahaamin; before 1959 – Gorodok) is a city of a regional significance in Russia, administration center of Zakamensky District of the Republic of Buryatia.

On July 9, 1932, a geological party led by M.V Besova uncovered the first quartz vein with large wolframite crystals in the Gurjirka fall, discovering the Dzhida tungsten deposit.

On October 11, 1934, People's Commissar of heavy industry of the USSR Sergo Ordzhonikidze signed an order on the opening of Dzhidastroy, the construction of the Dzhidinsky tungsten-molybdenum combine was initiated.

In 1935, a place was chosen for the foundation of the working settlement of Dzhidastroy – between the village of Modonkul and the Incur mine, in an extensive cherry grove.

In the same year, a bridge across Dzhida river was built, heavy machinery and equipment began to be imported, and the Holston mine was launched.

During the 1950s, street lighting appeared, well-maintained 3-4-storey houses were built, a mining college and a consumer service plant were opened.

In 2008, an enterprise for the processing of waste from the work of the Dzhidinsky VMK, which extracts tungsten with associated gold and silver, was put into operation.

Later, in 2010, the company "Tverdosplav" won a tender for the use of mineral resources in the area of the Holtoson and Inkur deposits, planning to build a new mining and processing plant in the coming years.

The city is located in the south-west of Buryatia near the state border with Mongolia, 404 km from Ulan-Ude, in the central part of the Dzhida ridge.

The city is located in the mountainous taiga zone, remote from other industrial centers, in the valley of a small watercourse originating in Mongolia.

When enriching tungsten-molybdenum ore by flotation, toxic reagents were used — kerosene, sulfuric acid, xanthogenate, pine oil, liquid glass, etc., which also accumulated in tailings.

The main sources of pollution are man-made sands of tailings of waste from the processing plants of the closed Dzhidacombinat, and mine, tunnel, quarry, sub-basement waters of the streams Gujirka, Inkur and the "Zapadnaya" tunnels, containing water-soluble forms of ore elements, and polluting through surface and underground runoff of the soil in the city and the waters of the Modonkul and Myrgensheno rivers.

Also, with strong winds, dust storms are not uncommon, which have formed a tail of scattering of man-made sands along the foot of the mountain with a length of 15 km.

The tender for the execution of works on this project was won by CJSC Zakamensk, during its execution, the rocks of the Dzhida tailings dump with a volume of 3.2 million tons covering an area of 452 hectares were moved to the dump in the Barun-Naryn Padi for the purpose of their further processing at the processing plant of CJSC Zakamensk".

The contractor under the state contract for the "second stage of measures to eliminate the environmental consequences of the activities of the Dzhidinsky tungsten-molybdenum Combine in the Zakamensky district of the Republic of Buryatia" in 2011 became LLC Gidrospetsstroy.

The project of the second stage of work did not include a program for medical and social rehabilitation of the population, which led to a heated public discussion.

As a result, the government of Buryatia promised to allocate funds for medical research to assess the health status of the population of Zakamensk.

This work will be coordinated by the Buryat branch of the FBGU SB RAMS "Scientific Center for Health, Family and Human Reproduction".

In the course of the second stage of work, the removal of man-made waste from the Dzhida tailings dump will continue, the construction of several complexes of treatment facilities near the city and mines for the treatment of stormwater, mine and basement waters, anti-erosion measures, demolition of abandoned buildings and structures of the combine, biological reclamation on an area of 613.8 hectares, including in the city, systematic monitoring of the environmental situation will be conducted.

Studies of drinking water sources revealed excess of Fe, Ni, Cd and Pb standards in samples from wells.

The soils, according to their data, are intensively polluted, but no anomalies were detected when analyzing samples of local fruit and vegetable, dairy and meat products.