Peculiarities of mining industry development in the Ural in the 17th—early 18th centuries

The article traces the organizational and technical development of the mining industry in the Ural in the 17th—early 18th centuries as function of properties of ore deposits. The author arrives to a conclusion that Russia borrowed the mining art from the Saxons to set upon extraction of cupriferous sandstone at the Grigorovo deposit at the Kama river in 1634. The inventory of that mine as of 1646 is the earliest known document to report mining surveys in Russia. Gossan formations found in the Middle Ural contained copper and iron. They constitute a major problem for the metallurgy and influence the production geography. At mixed-type primary deposits, manufacturers had to build both a copper smeltery and an ironworks. Extraction of copper and precious metals from complex ore urged the Saxons to organize mine rescue, systems of underground openings, stamp drives, as well as pumps to supply water, air and blasting powder. Cupriferous sandstones on the western shoulder of the Urals were extracted by teams of free diggers that time, who used very simple tools. Iron ore was mined using the open pit method because of the ore accessibility. The result was a quite progressive European-level mining and metallurgical industry to arise in the 1720s in Russia.