History of metallurgy in the Urals

The history of metallurgy in the Urals stands out to historians and economists as a separate stage in the history of Russian industry and covers the period from the 4th millennium BC to the present day. The emergence of the mining district is connected with the history of Ural metallurgy. The geography of the Ural metallurgy covers the territories of modern Perm Krai, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Oblast and Orenburg Oblast.
In the late history of Ural metallurgy, periods of formation and development of industrial metallurgical centers at the beginning of the 18th century stand out. For example, the rapid construction and economic growth of more than two hundred metallurgy factories during the 18th to the first half of the 19th centuries until the abolition of serfdom. There was a sharp drop in production rates at the beginning of the 20th century but that was followed by recovery and growth by 1913. In the 20th century, after recovering from the decline caused by the Revolutions and the Civil War, Ural metallurgy had a strategic impact on ensuring the defense of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. In the 21st century, the development of metallurgical enterprises in the Urals is associated with the formation of vertically integrated full cycle companies.
The main milestones in the development of metal production technologies in the Urals include the transition from the old-creek method of iron production to the Kontuaz forge and puddling method in the second half of the 19th century, and the later development of hot blast at the end of the 19th century. Further, the transition to mineral fuel and the introduction of steam engines, and finally the development of open-hearth and Bessemer methods of steel production at the beginning of the 20th century.
Copper smelters of the Urals at the beginning of the 20th century mastered pyrite smelting, which made it possible to process poor sulfur ores. In the pre-war years, the Nizhnekyshtym copper electrolyte plant, the Karabash and Kalatinsky plants were launched. Through syndicates formed, British companies owned 65.5% of the copper mined in the Urals. The gold-platinum mining industry was mechanized. The first Dutch dredges appeared in 1900 at the Unexpected Mine on the Is River, by 1913 the number of dredges in the Urals reached 50, they ensured the extraction of 20% of gold and 50% of platinum. Until 1913, the average production of gold in the Urals was 550-650 pounds per year, platinum - 300-350 pounds per year.[225]
Primitive metallurgy.
The first signs of metallurgical production in the Urals date back to the 4th and 3rd millennia BC. During the Bronze Age, primitive copper-bronze metallurgy was developed among the pastoral tribes of the Urals. The beginning of the development of the Kargalinsky copper ore deposit, located along the Kargalka and Yangiz Rivers, dates back to this period. In the first half of the third millennium BC, centers of copper metallurgy were formed in the Western Urals and in the Kama region, the ore base that served numerous nest deposits of copper sandstone.
The second millennium BC is characterized by the massive spread of copper-bronze metallurgy practically throughout the Urals, the development of new technologies and metal processing. The Seima-Turbino phenomenon of the distribution of high-quality bronze products in the vast expanses of the forest-steppe zone of Eurasia belongs to this period. The centers of metallurgy of the Southern Urals of the 2nd millennium BC include settlements of the Sintashta, Abashevo and Arkaim cultures. The development of bronze metallurgy in the Urals was hindered by the lack of tin deposits, the alloying of copper which allowed to obtain high-quality bronze. Therefore, the metal objects found at the excavations of the Bronze Age settlements are mainly represented by products made of ordinary copper and arsenic bronze.
At the end of the 2nd-beginning of the 1st millennium BC, the most ore-rich upper horizons of the southern Ural copper mines were depleted and abandoned. In the middle of the first millennium BC, metallurgical products were mastered by representatives of Srubnaya culture. In the second half of the 1st millennium BC, there were isolated pockets of Ananyino culture in the Kama-Volga region and Itkul culture in the Urals.
The appearance of iron in the Urals dates back to the 1st millennium BC. In the Kama-Volga region iron products were made from the 8th to the 6th centuries BC, and in the Trans-Urals from the fifth to the fourth centuries BC. In general, the massive penetration of primitive iron metallurgy with the use of forges in the Urals began in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Forest tribes of the northern Urals and in the north of western Siberia mastered iron metallurgy by the end of the 1st millennium BC. In the settlements of the Gorokhovo and Kara-Abyz cultures, along with bronze, iron products were also constantly found.
The 1st millennium AD was characterized by the massive distribution of iron in the Urals and Western Siberia. The oldest blast furnace in the Urals, belonging to the Pyanoborsk culture, was discovered by V. F. Genning at the settlement of Cheganda I, on the territory of modern Udmurtia. Also, for the settlements of the Upper Kama region at the beginning of the Iron Age, the separation of metallurgical production into a separate craft was characteristic, which made up the specialization of entire villages or parts of them. The spread of iron crafts was facilitated by the resettlement of the Ugric tribes of the Petrogrom culture in the Urals. Remains of iron-smelting furnaces of the 6th-9th centuries were found during excavations of hill forts near modern Yekaterinburg. 
In the 11th to the 13th centuries, metal goods of Western European artisans began to penetrate the Urals through trade routes, which contributed to the expansion of the range of products smelted by the Ural metallurgists. Excavations at the Kama settlements or hill forts of Idnakar, Vasyakar, Dondykar, Kushmansky, and others have shown that in the 11th to the 15th centuries the main unit for smelting iron was an adobe furnace, which operated on forced blast. The metalworking complexes consisted of forges and tool kits. The development of heat treatment and welding of metals proceeded unevenly throughout the Urals. In the 1st millennium, the main products of metallurgists were items for military and hunting purposes: arrowheads, spears, axes, knives, and fishhooks. From the beginning of the second millennium, agricultural implements began to prevail.
By the end of the 1st millennium, ore mining and its own copper-bronze and iron production in the Urals gradually ceased due to the depletion of available resources, competition with more developed cultures, and ethnographic changes that had begun. The penetration of Russians into the Urals, associated mainly with the abundance of furs in the region, facillitated the infiltration of new technologies, including metallurgical ones. In the 17th to the 18th centuries, abandoned ancient mines served as a kind of indicator for geologists in search of ore. With the help of such finds, the Gumeshev and Kargalin deposits of copper ores, the deposits of the Verkh-Isetsky (Upper Iset) and Kyshtym mining districts, as well as the Mednorudyansk deposit were discovered.
The 14th to the 16th centuries.
During the period of active colonization of the Urals, which began in the 14th to early 15th centuries, there were rumors about the resources of the subsurface of the Perm land and Yugra. But in conditions of danger to the settlers from the indigenous population, industrial land development was practically not carried out. In 1491, Ivan III sent an expedition to the Northern Urals, to Pechora, with the task of searching for silver and copper ores. As a result, a small silver ore deposit was discovered on the Tsilma River, which was quickly developed. Ivan IV declared the prospecting and mining of ores a state monopoly and in 1567-1568 he also sent an expedition to search for silver and copper ores on the Yayva River. The expedition ended in vain. In 1568, Ivan IV allocated extensive lands to Y. A. Stroganov in the Kama region with permission to use iron ores, but with a ban on the use of silver, copper and tin ores, and he had to immediately report their discovery to Moscow.
The active resettlement of Russians to the Urals was facilitated by the agrarian crisis of the agricultural central part of Russia in the 16th century. From 1579 to 1678 the Russian population of Great Perm increased from 2,197 to 11,811 households (by 463%). By 1724, the population of the Urals was already about 1 million people, while the total population of Russia was about 14 million people.
Until the beginning of the 17th century, all of the Ural and Russian metallurgy was local handcrafted production in the form of small peasant blast furnaces and forges, in which all the processes of obtaining finished products were concentrated.
The 17th to the 19th century.
The 17th century.
Beginning in 1618, the government on an almost constant basis organized expeditions to the Urals and Siberia to search for ore deposits. Also, the practice of issuing permits was used, which made it possible to search for ores throughout the territory of the state.
In the 16th-17th centuries, primitive blast furnaces were built by peasant families in the forests adjacent to their villages. The resulting metal pieces were processed into iron in forges or sold. It is known that 40 years before the arrival of Georg Wilhelm de Gennin to the Urals, the peasants of the Aramil settlement smelted iron in small furnaces and sold it, paying tithes to the district office. Even at the beginning of the 18th century, the smelting of ore in small blast furnaces was widespread in many regions of the Urals. In 1720-1722, the artisanal farms of the Kungur district produced 3 thousand poods of iron, 203 poods of strip iron and 897 poods of traditional. Subsequently, artisanal metallurgical production was legally prohibited on the initiative of G. W. de Gennin.
In the 1630s, with the involvement of foreign engineers, the construction of arms metallurgical factories began in the central part of Russia. Despite the construction of more than 20 state and private factories in the central region in the 17th century, the country experienced a shortage of metal and continued to buy it abroad. In 1629, 25 thousand poods of bar iron were bought in Sweden. To meet the needs of the Ural and Siberian enterprises (primarily salt-making) and settlements settled by Russians, iron was purchased in the central regions. At the same time, the cost of the metal increased sharply with the distance to the east due to transport costs [43]. The impetus for the development of the Ural industry at the beginning of the 17th century was the plans of the authorities to create metallurgical enterprises in the eastern regions of Russia. After his trip abroad, Peter I, realizing the shortage of coal in the central regions and the need to strengthen weapons potential, ordered the construction of mining plants in the Urals, providing them with engineers from Tula, Kashira and other factories. The Ural factories were built on the model of factories in central Russia, which, in turn, were created using the French, German and Swedish experience. The rapid development of the metallurgical industry in the Urals in the 17th-18th centuries was facilitated by the abundance of rich natural alloyed (copper, chromium and vanadium) ores in the region, as well as the availability of accessible forest and water resources. The lack of railways led to the development of a large number of small mines. Iron ore reserves were considered practically inexhaustible, while copper ore reserves, on the contrary, were quickly depleted, which led to the closure of 40 copper smelters in the Western Urals in the late 17th - first half of the 18th century.
In the absence of their own specialists in mining and metallurgy, craftsmen were invited from abroad, but they worked mainly in the central regions of the country. In 1618-1622, the Englishman John Water, and in 1626 Fritsch, Gerold and Bulmerr, together with Russian attendants, carried out fruitless expeditions to search for ores in the region of the upper Kama and the Pechora. The Bergman brothers also unsuccessfully searched for ore in 1626 in the Cherdyn region. Only in 1635, the Saxon, Aris Petzold, and the Moscow merchant Nadia Sveteshnikov found two copper deposits, which became the basis of the first copper smelter in the Urals - Pyskorsky. Failures of geological exploration expeditions at the beginning of the 17th century forced the state to weaken its monopoly on exploration for non-ferrous and precious metals. Major rewards were promised for the found deposits. This decision was followed by a series of discoveries of new deposits of copper and iron in the Urals. In particular, thanks to local residents who brought samples of bog ore to the offices of the Turin and Tobolsk governors for a fee, the deposits of the first iron-making plant in the Urals - Nitsynsky - were discovered. In the 1670s, the expeditions, not finding ore in the Penza district, began to advance to the Urals and found silver ores along the banks of the Kama, Yayva and Kosva.
Government incentives for the found ores led to a sharp increase in exploration activity in the Urals. In the second half of the 17th century, the focus of the search shifted from the Kama region to the Verkhotursky district, where a number of large copper and iron deposits were discovered. In 1669-1674, the state organized an expedition to the Trans-Urals to search for silver and gold ores. During the expedition, no suitable ore was found. Rich ores were found only at the end of the 17th century far beyond the Urals, in the valley of the Argun River, on the basis of which, in 1704, the first Russian silver-smelting Nerchinsk plant was launched.
In general, the Ural metallurgy in the 17th century did not go beyond the limits of artisanal production, the central regions received greater development during this period.
Mining factories.
With the appearance of the first factories in the Urals and the establishment of production and economic relations between the authorities and the owners, pronounced features of a subsistence economy appeared: everything necessary to ensure production was prepared and carried out at the factories on their own. Mining factories had their own landholdings, mines, quarries, forestry, stable yards, hayfields, marinas, courts, mills, and various auxiliary workshops. Such industrial and economic complexes were called mining districts and were legally described in the Mountain Regulations of 1806. The first mining plants of the Urals were fortified settlements with defensive structures to protect them from the raids of the Bashkirs. 
In total, about 250-260 mining plants of various specializations were built in the Urals and the Kama region: iron foundries, copper smelting, iron-making and processing plants. In total, there were about 500 mining plants in Russia. The first Ural ironworks of the 17th century did not have blast furnaces and were small forges of several smelting furnaces. Such factories include Nitsynsky (founded in 1630), Krasnoborsky (1640), Tumashevsky (1669), Dalmatovsky Monastery Zhelezenskoye settlement (1683, the Kamensky iron foundry was founded on the site of the plant) and the plant in Aramashevskaya Sloboda (1654). The first full-fledged mining plants in the Urals were the Nevyansky and Kamensky plants, founded in 1699-1700 and equipped with blast furnaces, the last mining plant was Ivano-Pavlovsky, launched in 1875. Later, metallurgical plants and mills were already under construction. Actually, the beginning of the history of the mining industry in the Urals is considered to be January 1697, when Governor D. M. Protasyev reported to Moscow about the discovery of iron ore on the Tagil and Neyva rivers. The iron obtained from this ore was studied by Moscow gunsmiths and the Tula blacksmith N. D. Antufiev (Demidov) and was given a high appraisal. On May 10 and June 15, 1697, decrees were issued for the construction of the first Ural factories. And the date of birth of Ural metallurgy is considered to be 1701 when blast-furnace plants were launched and produced the first cast iron.
A specific feature of the Ural mining plants was the obligatory presence of a dam and a pond, which ensured the operation of factory mechanisms through water wheels. Therefore, mining plants were built in close proximity to ore deposits and the river. In a drought, when the water level in the navigable river decreased, the passage of ships was ensured by the synchronous discharge of water from several factory ponds located on the tributaries. The supply of charcoal was provided by the vast forest dachas assigned to the factories. The length of the dams of large factories reached 200–300 m and more (the largest dam of the Byngovsky plant was 695 m long), the width was 30–40 m, and the height was 6–10 m. Due to the climatic conditions of the Urals, it was necessary to maintain a large volume of water in the pond in order to avoid it freezing in the winter. The complete dependence of factories on the availability of water in the ponds led to frequent shutdowns of enterprises or their individual shops for a period of up to 200 days a year. To increase the water pressure, various methods were used: connecting ponds through channels with lakes or other ponds, replenishing ponds from high-mountain reservoirs through gutters. Another difference from European dams was the presence of pine or larch log cabins with valves to regulate the water level in the pond. A wide (up to 10 m and more) slot or "Veshnyak" served to let in excess water during spring floods or in summer after heavy rains. A narrower (about 2 m wide) working slot was intended to supply water to a water conduit - a wooden trough, which was laid along the entire length of the plant's territory and through which water was supplied by a system of wooden pipes and gutters to the impellers of numerous plant mechanisms. The dams of large factories had several slots. All production buildings were located along the working slots. At the same time, industries that required more energy to drive mechanisms were located closer to the dam. Directly behind the dam there was usually a blast-furnace shop, behind it - blast factories, further along the trough there were drilling, stacking, steel, armature and auxiliary factories. The blast furnace was connected to the dam by a bridge across which ore, coal and fluxes were delivered. Almost all the Ural mining plants of the 18th century had two blast furnaces in their composition; in the future, the number of furnaces could increase. Pig iron, as a rule, was sent to a blast factory, where it was processed into blast iron and pounded with hammers. At large factories, the number of hammers reached 8-13.
As a rule, the factory office, the manor house, the houses of the employees of the plant administration, and the church were located on the square in front of the plant. Subsequently, with the expansion of factories, such a layout became environmental stress on factory settlements, which gradually grew into cities. Factory ponds, where industrial waste was dumped, were at the same time a source of drinking water, which contributed to the spread of all kinds of illnesses. The plants located close to each other were eventually united by one settlement: Verkh-Neyvinsky and Nizhny-Verkhneyvinsky plants in Verkh-Neyvinsky, Yekaterinburg and Verkh-Isetsky plants in Yekaterinburg, and others.
The management of state-owned factories was carried out on the military settlements model. Mining superiors, who received the title of generals, were appointed by the authorities. The plant was provided with a military garrison, which partly supported the convoy with products. The work was led by mining officers and craftsmen, who were replaced on average every five years. In 1834, state-owned factories were legally equated with military organizations and their workers with soldiers. The management of private factories was carried out by the factory owners under the supervision of the state. The presence of one owner of factories in different regions contributed to the exchange of experience and technologies between enterprises.
In literature, over time, the term "mining district" became more widely used meaning a historically established complex of enterprises with lands and forests belonging to it, pits, mines, and a mining population living on its territory. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the term "mining plant" is practically not used.
The 18th century.
At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the country's need for metal was exacerbated by the outbreak of wars for access to the Black and Baltic Seas. Olonets and Kashiro-Tula plants in the central and northwestern parts of Russia had already depleted forest and ore bases and did not meet the growing demand for weapons-grade metal, and could not produce high-quality metal due to the presence of harmful impurities in the ores, primarily sulfur and phosphorus. These same prerequisites contributed to the shift of priority from the smelting of non-ferrous and noble metals towards iron. After the defeat of the Russian troops at Narva on November 19, 1700, the Swedes were left with all the Russian artillery, which exacerbated the need for accelerated production of guns. To make up for these losses, Peter I gave the order to melt the church bells into cannons and mortars. As a result, 300 cannons were cast in one year.
In 1696, at the initiative of the head of the Siberian order, the Duma clerk A.A. Vinius, the ore found in the Verkhotursky district was sent for examination to the Moscow gunsmiths and the Tula blacksmith N. D. Antufiev (Demidov). The samples were highly appraised, which played a decisive role in government decision-making. On May 10 and June 15, 1697, decrees of Peter I were issued on the construction of the first Ural blast furnace plants. The construction was supervised by the Siberian Order headed by A. A. Vinius. The first craftsmen arrived in the Urals to build the Nevyansk and Kamensk factories in the spring of 1700. By 1717, out of 516 workers at the Nevyansk plant, 118 people came from central Russia, including 52 from Tula, and 66 people from Moscow and the Moscow region. The launch of the first two plants in 1701 showed good prospects for Ural metallurgy. In 1702, the Uktussky, Verkhne- and Nizhne-Alapaevsky plants were launched, supplying metal, including for the construction of buildings in St. Petersburg.
On March 4, 1702, by the decree of Peter I, the unfinished Nevyansk plant was transferred to the private property of N. D. Demidov. He proved to be a talented organizer and was able to significantly increase production volumes, with the support of the authorities. Demidov easily achieved the registration of additional peasants to factories, as well as relaxation in taxes and supervision by local administrations. Since 1716, the Demidovs became the first Russian exporters of iron to Western Europe. In total, the Demidovs built 55 metallurgical plants, including 40 in the Urals. By 1740, the Demidov factories produced about 64% of all Ural and 46% of Russian iron. At the same time, the productivity of the Demidovs' factories was on average 70% higher than that of state-owned. 
In April 1703, the first convoy with guns and iron made in the Urals (323 cannons, 12 mortars, 14 howitzers) was sent from the Utkinskaya pier on the Chusovaya River. From the factories, the guns were transported by horse-drawn transport 176 versts to Chusovaya, then they were delivered by water to Moscow or St. Petersburg, wintering in Tver. The first convoy arrived in Moscow in 11 weeks and 6 days, on July 18, 1703. Tests of the first guns, which had been cast in a hurry, were unsuccessful: of the first two guns, one was torn into 20 parts due to the poor quality of the cast iron. Later, in the course of mass testing of the guns, 102 guns out of 323 were torn apart. After that, A. A. Vinius ordered the guns to be tested at the factories before shipment. Later, due to the unsatisfactory quality of the metal and high transportation costs, the manufacture of cannons was moved to the factories of the Central part of Russia. By a decree on 19 January 1705, the smelting of cannons at the Ural factories was terminated.
In the first years of the 18th century, with the launch of the first state-owned and private factories, the production base of mining districts and the management system of the enterprises included in them began to be built. Almost all of the first Ural factories were built by local peasants, who were then assigned to factories. In 1700, the first registration of more than 1.6 thousand peasants to the Nevyansk plant was carried out. In 1703, an additional postscript was made to the same plant, which was already owned by N. D. Demidov. By 1762, about 70% of state peasants were assigned to factories in the Middle Urals and Kamsky Urals. The registered peasants at the factories performed mainly auxiliary work: they prepared firewood for the production of coal and heating houses, mined and fired ore and limestone, transported goods, and erected dams. On December 10, 1719, the privileges of miners were enshrined in law with the Berg Privilege, which allowed representatives of all classes to search for ores and build metallurgical plants. At the same time, manufacturers and artisans were exempted from state taxes and recruiting, and their houses were exempt from the post of troops. The law also guaranteed the inheritance of the ownership of factories, proclaimed industrial activity a matter of state importance and protected manufacturers from interference in their affairs by local authorities. The same law established the Berg Board, and managed the entire mining and metallurgical industry, and local administrations. The provisions of the Berg Privilege were extended to foreign nationals in 1720, and remained in force until the early 19th century.
In the 1720s, V.N. Tatishchev and, later, V. de Gennin, who founded the Yekaterinburg state-owned plant in 1723, were sent to the Urals as leaders of the local mining administration. Tatishchev came into conflict with Demidov, trying to weaken his power at the beginning of his work in the Urals. Demidov complained of infringement in Petersburg, and Tatishchev was recalled. Later, de Gennin, who came to replace Tatishchev, and completed the construction of the plant in 1722-1723, confirmed the abuse of the Demidovs in organizing the work of private plants. In 1720, Tatishchev established the Office of Mining Affairs in Kungur, and in 1722 transferred it to the Uktussky plant and renamed it the Siberian Mining Authority, and then the Siberian Higher Mining Authority. De Gennin transferred the Office to Yekaterinburg in 1723 and renamed the institution the Siberian Ober-Bergamt. The achievements of Tatishchev include creating competition for the Demidovs by inviting other mining companies to the Urals, developing rules for managing mining plants and staffing standards.
In the 1720s and 1740s, the Yekaterinburg plant, which gave rise to Yekaterinburg, was the largest metallurgical plant in Europe. The blast furnaces of the plant were more economical and more productive than the English and Swedish ones, which were considered the best in the industry at that time. If the specific consumption of charcoal per 100 kg of iron in Swedish furnaces ranged from 300 to 350 kg, then in Yekaterinburg the consumption of coal was 150–170 kg.
On January 18, 1721, a decree was issued that allowed factory owners, regardless of whether they had a noble rank, to buy serfs. At the same time, the villages purchased by the tycoon with their population could only be sold together with the factory. Later, these peasants and the factories that used their labor became known as possessory factories. Later, in 1744, the norms for the purchase of peasants with factories were established: in the factories of ferrous metallurgy with one blast furnace — 100 peasants, and in the copper smelters - 200 men for every thousand pounds of copper. The addition of peasants to factories led to unrest and riots, which were suppressed during the 2nd half of the 18th century. Later, until the middle of the 19th century, free labor contributed to the intensive development of the metallurgical industry.
In the first quarter of the 18th century, 20 blast furnaces were built in the Urals, and in 1725 they smelted about 0.6 million poods of cast iron. During the same period, small businesses built several small metallurgical plants: Mazuevsky, Shuvakishsky, and Davydovsky. All of them existed for no more than 40 years. After the end of the Northern War, due to a decrease in demand for ferrous metals, the construction of iron smelters was suspended, mainly copper smelters were built. From 1721 to 1725, 11 plants were built in the Urals, of which only Nizhny Tagil was blast-furnace and iron-making, the rest were either copper-smelting (Polevskoy and Pyskorsky), or copper-smelting and iron-making (Verkhne-Uktussky and Yekaterinburg). In total, from 1701 to 1740, 24 state and 31 private metallurgical plants were built in the Urals, which determined the specialization of the region as a quality industrial metallurgical center. Private factories were characterized by higher profitability compared to state-owned. The growth of iron smelting in the Urals over 25 years (from 1725 to 1750) amounted to 250%: from 0.6 million poods to 1.5 million poods.
In the 1730s, the construction of fortresses and factories began in the Southern Urals, on the lands of the Bashkirs. In 1734, Anna Ioannovna approved the project of colonization of the Southern Urals submitted by the Chief Secretary of the Senate, I. K. Kirilov, and appointed him the Chief Commander of the Orenburg expedition. The tasks of the expedition included the construction of the fortress city of Orenburg, a line of defensive fortresses in order to exclude the raids of the Bashkirs, development of the natural resources of the region, and the opening of trade routes to Asia. In autumn of 1736, 100 versts to the south-east of Ufa and 10 versts from the Tabynsky fortress, the construction of the Resurrection (Tabynsky) copper smelter, the first in the Southern Urals, was started. On May 22, 1744, a decree of the Berg Collegium was issued, which allowed for the purchase from the Bashkirs and other owners of the deposit, forests and land for the construction of mining plants. In the period from 1745 to 1755, 20 factories were built on the territory of Bashkiria. By 1781, there were 38 factories in total. During the years of the Peasant War, 89 mining plants were damaged to varying degrees. With the beginning of the uprising, in the first half of October 1773, the closest private copper plants to Orenburg were seized: Verkhotorsky, Voskresensky, Preobrazhensky and Kano-Nikolsky plants. From November to December, all plants in the Southern Urals (24 plants) were seized. By the beginning of 1774, the uprising covered the Middle Urals, the number of captured factories in January reached 39, in February - 92. Individual factories resumed work for short periods of time in 1774, despite the occupation. With the suppression of the uprising, the work of the factories began to recover. By the beginning of 1775, about two thirds of all the Ural factories were working. By the end of 1775, the least destroyed factories of the Southern Urals began to resume their work.
Since the middle of the 18th century, state-owned Ural factories began to produce gold, and since 1819, platinum. Later, mining was permitted for all Russian subjects, which led to the rapid propagation of gold mines in the Urals. In the 1750s and 1760s, the construction of factories in the Urals continued intensively, thanks to the high profitability of production and the support of the authorities. In addition to the Demidovs and Stroganovs, entrepreneurs Osokins, Tverdyshevs, I. S. Myasnikov, and M. M. Pokhodyashin, as well as officials and nobles: P. I. Shuvalov, M. M. Golitsyn, and A. I. Glebov began to build factories. Only the Yekaterinburg and Kamensky plants remained in the state administration, the rest were transferred to private management. Later, many private factories were returned to the treasury for debts (in 1764 — the factories of Count Shuvalov, in 1770 — Count Chernyshev's, in 1781 — Count Vorontsov's). By the end of the 17th century, the largest companies in Russia were the Demidovs, Yakovlevs, Batashovs and Mosolovs, which produced about half of all iron in the country.
In 1767, about 140 metallurgical plants operating in the Urals made the region a leader in world iron production and secured a monopoly position in Russia in copper smelting. By the end of the 18th century, the number of serf workers in the Ural factories reached 74.1 thousand people, and the number of registered peasants reached 212.7 thousand people. In 1800, the Ural factories produced 80.1% of cast iron, 88.3% of iron, and 100% of copper of the all-Russian production volume. Thanks to this, Russia came out on top in the world for iron production and smelted from 20 to 27% of the world's copper.
From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, problems with the supply of wood worsened at most of the Ural mining plants. The forests of the factory dachas were cut down at a distance of 5 to 25 versts. The old factories had even greater distances: the Kamensk plant had 50-55 versts, and the Nevyansk plant had 40-70 versts. Decrees were issued prohibiting unauthorized logging.
The 19th century.
The industrial revolution at the Ural mining plants consisted of three major stages:
The replacement of wooden bellows with cylindrical blowers in the early 19th century reduced coal consumption by up to 20% and doubled the productivity of blast furnaces. Further development of blast furnace technology was associated with increasing the height of the furnaces, optimizing their profile and increasing the power of the blower motors. Cupola furnaces appeared at factories, and the casting of metals became a separate production. In 1808, serf S. I. Badaev invented a method for producing cast steel, later called Badaevskaya, for which he received his freedom and in 1811 was sent to the Votkinsk Plant to organize production. At the Zlatoust plant since 1828, experiments on the production of cast steel were conducted by P. P. Anosov.
Foreign engineers played a significant role in the development of existing plants and the construction of new ones in the Urals. In the 18th century, up to 600 German metallurgists worked at the factories of the Yekaterinburg Department at various times. At the beginning of the 19th century, 140 craftsmen from Europe were invited to the Izhevsk Arms Factory, and 115 German gunsmiths and steelworkers were invited to the Zlatoust Arms Factory. After the end of the contract, many foreigners remained in the factories as freelance workers.
Administrative changes at the beginning of the 19th century were associated with the approval in 1806 of the Mining Charter, compiled by A. F. Deryabin and later included in part in the Code of Laws of 1832, and the formation of the Mining Department, which was transformed in 1811 into the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs.
In the period from 1801 to 1860, 37 new plants were built in the Urals, including 3 copper smelters. Next to the previously built factories, auxiliary plants were built, which used the wastewater of the main factories and were actually their rolling shops. During the same period, 14 Ural copper smelters were closed due to the refusal of mints' coinage and the transition to paper money. To stabilize the situation, the government in 1834 abolished all taxes from factories, except for tithes. At the same time, the level of copper production at the beginning of the century was reached only in 1826. Since the 1850s, due to the appearance of cheap English, and later — Chilean, North American, and Australian copper on the market, the metallurgical industry of the Southern Urals entered a period of long-term crisis. In 1859, the price of Russian copper in comparison with the level of 1854 had decreased by 50%.
Steam engines were introduced and took root in the Urals slowly. The first steam engines appeared in the Ural factories in the last years of the 18th century. From 1800 to the 1810s, machines often failed and consumed a lot of firewood, which caused their slow spread. In the 1830s, the machines became more reliable, there were machine-building enterprises that designed, assembled, and repaired steam engines. In 1834, the Cherepanovs built the first steam locomotive and the first railway with a length of 853.4 m, designed to deliver ore from the Vysokogorsky mine to the Vysky plant. By 1840, the number of steam engines in the Ural factories reached 73 units. Also in the 1840s, hydraulic turbines became widespread in the Urals, replacing low-performance water wheels.
In the 1840s, the introduction of the Kontuaz method of iron production began at the Ural factories. The Yuryuzan-Ivanovsky plant in 1840 and the Simsky plant in 1842 were the first to switch to it. Subsequently, the Kontuaz forges were built at state-owned factories, and later at private ones. By 1861, 364 Kontuaz forges operated at 37 factories in the Urals. In the 1860s and 1870s, when production was already supplanted by steelmaking, Lancashire forges appeared in the Urals. A more productive puddling process was introduced in the Urals in 1817 in a test mode at the Pozhevsky plant, from 1825-1830 at the Nizhniy Tagil plant, and in September 1837 the Votkinsky plant completely switched to puddling. By 1861, among 58 factories, there were 201 puddling furnaces, 34 gas puddling, 153 welding, and 23 gas welding furnaces. Before the widespread use of steel-making processes in 1857, P. M. Obukhov invented a cheap method, called Obukhov, of steel production at the Zlatoust plant.
The height of the Ural blast furnaces in the 19th century reached 18 meters, which significantly exceeded the height of European furnaces. This advantage made it possible to carry out the blast furnace process on a cold blast with relatively low costs. This led to the later introduction of hot blast in the Urals, although successful experiments on its use were carried out back in the 1830s and 1840s at the Kushvinsky, Lysvensky, Verkh-Isetsky, and other plants. Thanks to the events of the Industrial Revolution in England, the average productivity of blast furnaces in the Ural factories in the second half of the 19th century was already inferior to those in England. So, in 1800, one blast furnace in the Urals produced an average of 91.6 thousand poods of iron, and in 1860, 137 thousand poods. British furnaces produced respectively 65.5 thousand and 426 thousand poods.
Since the middle of the 19th century, rolling production has developed, and steel and iron casting continued to develop. Castings from the Kasli plant have become world-famous. At large factories, rail rolling production was mastered. In 1859, 12.2 million poods of iron were smelted at the factories of the Urals, which was about 2/3 of all iron smelted in Russia.
During the Patriotic War of 1812, many Ural factories were converted to weapons production facilities. The Kamensk plant issued 87,274 poods of artillery pieces during 1810-1813. During the war years, 47 private factories crossed over to manufacturing shells, some of which had never produced such products. Often, production plans were frustrated, and the cast guns did not withstand testing due to haste and unexploited technologies. The victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 did not allow the authorities to identify these problems. At the same time, the war substantially reduced the demand of the domestic market for metal, which led to inflation and long standstills at factories.
The casting of artillery pieces resumed in 1834. Before the beginning of the Crimean War, from 1834 to 1852, the Ural factories cast 1,542 guns instead of the 3,250 ordered, on average, orders for the production of shells were fulfilled by about 23-25 %. Already during the war, the supply of 60-pounder guns was disrupted due to a gap in testing. During the defense of Sevastopol, 900 Ural guns were unsuitable.
The development of the Ural copper-smelting industry in the 19th century was associated with an increase in the height of furnaces, the use of hot blast and coal. Steam engines began to be used to lift the ore to the surface and pump water out of the mines. Copper production has shifted to the Northern and Southern Urals. In the second half of the 19th century, copper smelting began to decline due to the depletion of deposits and reduced demand from mints.
Since the 1820s, gold and platinum mining has been rapidly developing in the Urals. In 1823, there were 309 mines in the region. 105 poods of gold were mined. In 1842, the largest Ural gold nugget weighing 36.04 kg was found at the Tsarevo-Alexandrovsky mine. Platinum was mined at the mines of the Nizhniy Tagil district of the Demidovs, at the Isov mines of the Verkh-Isetsk district, and at the Krestovozdvizhensk mines. In the 19th century, the Urals produced 93–95% of the world's platinum.
In the 18th century and first half of the 19th century, the use of adolescent and child labor was widespread in the mines and factories of the Urals, sanctioned by a number of legislative acts and reinforced in the Mining Statute of 1842. In the 1850s, children and adolescents accounted for 30 to 50% of all workers in factories, and in mines - from 40 to 85%. At the beginning of the 19th century, women were employed in 17% of factories. In the 1850s, female labor was already more widely used, and the proportion of women was about 10% of the workers. 
By the time of the abolition of serfdom, the Ural metallurgy was in a deep crisis, which was facilitated by a sharp increase in grain prices in 1857 due to crop failures, especially significant in the Northern Urals. Of the 41 mining districts, 13 had a total debt of 8.1 million rubles, which increased to 12.4 million rubles by the end of the 1860s. The transition to freelance labor led to a sharp reduction in the number of workers in factories. If in 1860 there were 8,663 workers at the seven Goroblagodatsky factories, in 1861 — 7,030, then in 1862 the number decreased to 4,671 people, in 1863 - to 3,097, and in 1864 - to 2,839 people. During this period, there were 154 metallurgical plants of various specializations and gold crafts in the Urals, including 24 state-owned, 78 possessory, and 52 manorial ones. Of these, 115 enterprises were located within the Perm Governorate, 26 in the Orenburg Governorate, and 13 in the Vyatka Governorate.
In 1824, to support the miners, the government established a State Loan Bank. According to the data of 1849, the State Loan Bank pledged the Kanonikolsky, Beloretsky, Voskresensky, Troitsky, Blagoveshchensky, Yuryuzan-Ivanovsky mining districts a total amount of 1,106,995 rubles in silver. In 1851, the Beloretsk Mining District was re-mortgaged to the bank, and in 1852, the Preobrazhensky Plant was mortgaged to private investors in the amount of 300 thousand rubles with the obligation to pay the debt to the bank. In general, the pre-reform level of production at the Ural factories was reached only in 1870. The Government provided support to mining companies in the form of soft loans secured by metals and orders for the construction of railways. The industry was heavily influenced by commercial banks and wealthy entrepreneurs who bought up entire mountain districts. In the 1880s, mining plants began to be incorporated.
In 1870, at the invitation of the Russian government, the Austrian metallurgist P. von Tunner visited an industrial exhibition in St. Petersburg and inspected the Ural metallurgical plants. As a result of this trip, in 1871, he published a book with a description of the factories, in which he noted the technical and organizational backwardness of the metallurgy of the Urals, and the high cost of production. Von Tunner's book eventually became the first systematic description of the Ural mining plants.
The lack of customs regulation of foreign supplies of metals had a negative impact on the development of Ural metallurgy. European metallurgical companies in the 2nd half of the 19th century actively united in syndicates to regulate market prices and control production volumes. The surplus, as a rule, was exported to the Russian markets and sold at low prices. This led to overstocking of markets and lower prices for metals. The amount of unsold metal at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair was 0.9 million poods in 1883, 1.16 million poods in 1884, 1.84 million poods in 1885, and 1.94 million poods in 1886.
In the 1880s and 1890s, 16 metallurgical plants were built in the Urals, including the large Chusovsky (1883) and Nadezhdinsky plants(1896). The old factories underwent significant modernization, including the introduction of mechanical processing plants, the construction of open-hearth shops, power plants, and air heaters. The introduction of hot blast was promoted in the 1860s and 1870s in the factories of the Urals. Rashet blast furnaces equipped with trapping devices for heating the air were used. Despite these successes, since 1896, the Urals has lost the primacy in the share of metal produced to enterprises in Southern Russia. In 1900, the Ural factories smelted 50.1 million poods of iron. The first open-hearth furnaces in the Urals were built in 1871 at Votkinsky and in 1875 at the Perm Cannon Factory. By 1900, there were a total of 42 of the furnace. Bessemerization in the Urals was first introduced at the Nizhnesaldinsky and Katav-Ivanovsky plants. In 1900, 48.9% of the Ural finished ferrous metal was produced by open-hearth and Bessemer methods.
By the end of the 19th century, with the expansion of factories in the Urals, the problems with the depletion of forest resources and environmental pollution intensified.
In 1899, on behalf of S. Yu. Witte, an expedition of scientists headed by D. I. Mendeleev was sent to the Urals, the main task of which was to find out the causes of stagnation in the metallurgical industry. In his report, Mendeleev called the main reasons for the industrial crisis of the Ural metallurgy, off-road conditions, the preserved serf relations between factory owners and peasants, the use of outdated equipment and technologies, the monopoly of large entrepreneurs on ore and forests, and the arbitrariness of local authorities. As a result of the expedition, a plan was drawn up for the development of Ural metallurgy with an increase in the volume of iron smelting to 300 million poods per year, which did not find the support of the authorities.
The 20th to the 21st centuries.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the entire Russian industry was in a deep crisis, the consequences of which affected the factories of the Urals until 1909. In 1909, the Ural iron and steel plants smelted 34.7 million tons of iron, which is 30.9% less than in 1900. During the crisis years, the share of finished iron increased, new markets were searched for, syndicates and associations were created to fight the competition of factories in Southern Russia. To a lesser extent, the crisis affected the copper smelting industry, thanks to continued demand and an increase in customs duties on copper imports. In the first decade of the 20th century, small technically backward factories with worn-out equipment, which had become unprofitable, were closed. Of the 111 metallurgical plants operating in the Urals in 1900, 35 plants were shut down by 1913. In conditions of tough competition, factories were forced to modernize: blast furnaces with a lightweight casing were erected, hot blast was introduced everywhere, steam engines and ore preparation for smelting, furnaces and puddling furnaces were replaced by open-hearth furnaces, more powerful rolling mills were built, and factories received electricity. In the mountainous districts, the optimization and reorganization of capacities were carried out: the final processing was concentrated, as a rule, at the main plant of the district, the rest of the factories provided supplies of iron. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Izhevsk, Perm, and Zlatoust arms factories sharply increased the production of guns, rifles, and shells. 
In 1908, the construction of the Porogi electrometallurgical plant for the production of ferroalloys, and one of the first hydroelectric power plants in Russia to provide the plant with electricity began. Until 1931, the plant was the only producer of ferroalloys in the country.
In 1910, an industrial boom began, which continued until the First World War. From 1910 to 1913, the production of iron increased to 55.3 million poods (by 29.9%), finished metal products - up to 40.8 million poods (by 9.6%). But the share of the Ural factories in the all-Russian iron smelting fell to 21.6%. Commercial banks actively invested in the development of the metallurgy of the Urals. The most important role in the Urals was played by the Azov-Don, St. Petersburg International, and Russian-Asian banks. The volume of investments at the turn of the 20th century was estimated at 10.8 million rubles. Modernization and reconstruction of mountain districts continued. In 1911, a new blast furnace with a volume of 150 m³ and an open-hearth furnace with a capacity of 25 tons were launched at the Nizhniy Tagil plant; two Bessemer converters and two new blast furnaces were installed at the Nizhnesaldinsky plant. The Votkinsk plant was reconstructed for the production of steam locomotives and river vessels. The factories that produced weapons were reconstructed and switched over to the production of civilian products. Also in the pre-war years, the concentration of production at large factories increased: in 1914, out of 49 Ural plants, 16 had the productivity of more than 1 million poods of iron per year and produced 65% of the total volume, including 5 factories with a capacity of more than 2 million poods of iron per year. Nadezhdinsky, Nizhnesaldinsky, Zlatoustovsky, Chusovskoy, and Votkinsky produced 36.1% of the total volume.
Copper smelters of the Urals at the beginning of the 20th century mastered pyrite smelting, which made it possible to process poor sulfur ores. In the pre-war years, the Nizhnekyshtymsky Copper Electrolytic Plant, the Karabashsky, and Kalatinsky plants were launched. Through syndicates formed, British companies owned 65.5% of the copper mined in the Urals. The gold-platinum mining industry underwent mechanization. The first Dutch dredges appeared in 1900 at the Neozhidany Mine on the Is River. By 1913, the number of dredges in the Urals reached 50, they ensured the extraction of 20% of gold and 50% of platinum. Until 1913, the average production of gold in the Urals was 550-650 poods per year, while the average production of platinum was 300-350 poods per year.
World War I and Civil War.
The modernization of private and state-owned factories and the construction of railways, which began in the 1910s, were not completed by the beginning of the war. Thinking the war would be brief, the government did not involve the private factories of the Urals in the production of guns and shells until the summer of 1915. As a result, the Ural industry was late in getting involved in providing the army with weapons and equipment. In 1914-1916, state-owned factories maintained the pre-war production of iron, but completely stopped the production of roofing iron in favor of military products. The production of high-grade iron and projectile steel was almost doubled. The sharp increase in production volumes was hindered by the lack of fuel resources, labor, and means for transporting goods. In 1915-1916, due to the lack of fuel in the Urals, 22 blast furnaces were stopped, and 11 furnaces worked at a reduced capacity. The situation was aggravated by the disorganization of railway transportation due to the priority of military needs and the mobilization of qualified personnel. In the summer of 1915, a commission headed by General A. A. Manikovsky was sent to the Urals to negotiate with private factory owners and explore the possibility of private factories participating in the production of military products, and to coordinate the actions of private factories. On November 7, 1915, the Ural Factory Meeting was established under the leadership of the Chief Head of the Ural Mining Department, P. I. Yegorov. In the future, it became obvious that the created administrative apparatus could not fulfill the tasks assigned to it. The difficult situation at the front in 1915 and the acute shortage of weapons forced the government to accept the inflated demands of entrepreneurs. As a result of negotiations, military orders were accepted by private factory owners at increased prices. The total cost of the orders was estimated at 200 million rubles.
The position of the working people worsened during the war years. The working day increased to 12 hours, women and children worked on an equal basis with men, but they were paid half as much. The organization of production was unsatisfactory: the factories received orders that they could not fulfill due to the lack of necessary equipment. After the defeat of the Russian troops in 1915-1916, 87% of the Ural factories switched to the production of military products. With the support of the authorities, commercial companies with the participation of foreign capital developed. In 1915-1918, large machine-building plants were evacuated from the front-line territories of the Baltics and Petrograd, to the Urals. The staff of the arms factories was replenished with evacuated specialists.