Iron metallurgy in the European north-east of Russia: mining works and manufactures

The history of the origin, functioning and decline of rock works and manufactures associated with the mining and processing of iron ores in the European North-East of Russia is reconstructed. Ancient ore experts developed the technique of the iron ore searching and technological methods of the ore pretreatment and enrichment. Different types of furnaces for the ore smelting were created. In the 16th-18th centuries the iron ore mining and iron production were widespread and common occupation of peasants in the southwestern and southern parts of the region. Such activities did not have a mass character in the Komi district. In the last half of the 18th century a large-scale iron-making metallurgy (the Kazymcky, Nyuvchimsky and Nyuchpassky plants) appeared in the Komi region due to investments of merchants from the Ustyug town. The local ore base provided functioning of these plants for more than one and a half century. In 1899 the building of the Ust-Berdysh plant was the latest attempt of ironworks creation on the local mineral base in the region. The plant was closed by economic reasons.