Sharyngol (until 1988 in Russian it was called Sharyn-Gol, Mong. Sharyngol “yellow river”) is a city in the Darkhan-Uul aimag in northern Mongolia. The distance to the administrative center of the aimag – the city of Darkhan – is 21 kilometers.

The thermal coal deposit was discovered by Soviet geologists in the 1930s, but the decision to start exploitation was made only in 1958, when additional exploration showed that the deposit was promising. With the economic and technical assistance of the Soviet Union in 1958-1960 stripping work was carried out. Coal mining began in 1961, the construction of a coal mine began in 1962, and it started operating in 1965. By 1975, production reached 1.1 million tons, at the next stage in 1976-1980, the capacity of the section increased to 2.5 million tons. In the 1980s, the section produced the largest production in its history. In the early 1990s, Soviet support was terminated, Soviet specialists left the country. Production dropped sharply. By the time the enterprise was privatized in 2003, it was producing only 600 thousand tons per year. In 2010, production amounted to approx. 1 million tons. The current owners plan to return to the pre-crisis level of production of 2.5 million tons by 2013.

The working settlement at the coal mine was officially established according to the decision of the Great People’s Khural of the Mongolian People’s Republic on October 17, 1961. It received city rights already in 1962. The city was also built with the assistance of the Soviet Union, built up with five-story residential buildings.