Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B. N. Eltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia:

V. V. Zapariy, Professor, Doctor of Historical Sciences, vvzap@mail.ru

Ural State Mining University, Yekaterinburg, Russia:
M. B. Nosyrev, Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences

The article gives a retrospective description of the history of economical and technological development in one of the most important sub-branches of metallurgical industry in the Ural–primary industry. The studies are based on the modern literature and the publications issued based on the outcome of the period of interest. The authors offer a detailed characteristic and estimate of performance of the industry under extreme conditions of transition from the command economy to the market system. The presentation compares development in the Ural region and in the country as a whole. The blind sides and strong points of the process are discussed in terms of all dominant undertakings in the Ural region. The presented statistics allows tracing the process of utilization of raw material resources in the region. The current expansion of the ore supply base in the region is described. The article shows that the today commercial use of ore materials cannot be assumed optimal for the majority of marketable ore is produced in the course of mining of low-grade raw materials. Percentage of high-grade ore in overall production is low while the foreign countries carry out high-rate extraction of mostly high-grade ore. In this connection, our country is faced with high cost of ore mining and processing, necessity to storage huge volumes of waste, increased transport expenditures, excess fuel consumption and appreciable energy intake by marketable production. The authors highlight that the iron ore industry in Russia is one of the few economy branches that suffered minimal regression in the 1990s. Since the basic processes of development in the industry root in the past, the analysis of the earlier growth stages is required to understand the current trends of progression.
The study has been supported by the Government of the Russian Federation, Program 211, Agreement No. 02.A03.21.0006.

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