Kalbinskii

a mountain range in the southwest Altai, in eastern Kazakhstan and Semipalatinsk oblasts, Kazakh SSR.

The Kalbinskii Range is about 400 km long. It is formed by a system of rugged, primarily low-mountain massifs that reach elevations of 1, 300–1, 500 m (maximum altitude, 1, 608 m). Toward the west the mountains become lower and gradually turn into a hummocky topography (elevations of 450–700 m). The Kalbinskii Range is made up of Paleozoic shales, sandstones, and intrusive rocks (primarily granites). There are deposits of gold and polymetallic ores. Below elevations of 800–1, 200 m, steppe vegetation predominates on mountain-chestnut and chernozem soils; higher up, one encounters occasional stands of conifers (on granites) and birch-aspen groves. There are subalpine steppe meadows on the highest peaks.