Regional Museum of Northern Ladoga:

Borisov I. V., Head of the Excursion and Tourism Department, Candidate of Geographic Sciences, e-mail: aldoga@bk.ru

The first copper and lead ore exploration in the territory of Ladozhskaya Karelia began at the end of the 18th century in Sortavala, Yalonvaara and Lyapisuria districts. In 1810-1820s, lots of industrialists tried to prospect ores in Pitkyaranta village. But the real large-scale ore production by Vsevolod Omelyanov begun in 1830s. He founded the first mines in Pitkyaranta and in 1942 launched a metallurgical plant to smelt copper and tin in Koirinoya. Since 1847, Saint-Petersburg “Pitkyarantskaya Company” became an owner of mines and plants in Pitkyaranta. This company became a developer of the profitable mining industry for 20 years. It built several plants near Pitktaranta to smelt copper and tin and expanded the mine net. In 1975, Pitkyaranta mines and plants were acquired by Saint-Petersburg bank “Edward Meier and Co.” This bank significantly increased the production output. In 1885, in Pitkyaranta, the advanced (at that time) “alkaline” metallurgical plant of ore chemically treating was launched along with the glass and dye manufacturing plants. At the end of the 19^th century, the ore from Pitkyaranta mines was smelted into copper, tin, silver and iron. Since 1896, all mines got a control of a joint-stock company “Ladoga”. A famous Finnish geologist Otto Tryustedt found out some new iron-ore occurrences which caused a new mine development in Pitkyaranta district. In 1899, Pitkyaranta mines and plants were acquired by a company “Aleksandrovski plant” and in 1903 – by Russian Empire Bank. This put an end to these mines in 1904. The last efforts to revitalize ore mining and metallurgical production in Pitkyaranta failed in 1930s.

The iron-ore exploration was been carried out in Vilimyaki district in 1890-1900s. The local mines and a dressing plant belonged to a joint-stock company “Putilovskiy plant”. Ore and iron-ore concentrates were sent to Saint-Petersburg and to iron smelting plant in Vidlitsa.

Nowadays, the derelict old-time mines and ruins of the metallurgical plants in Ladozhskaya Karelia are considered to be unique objects and significant sites of Karelian heritage.

1. Alopeus S. Kratkoe opisanie mramornykh i drugikh lomok, gor i kamennykh porod, nahodyashchikhsya v Rossiyiskoy Karelii (Short description of marble and other ore breakages, mountains and rocks in the territory of Russian Karelia). Saint Petersburg, 1787, p. 82

2. Furman A. F. Mineralogicheskoe opisanie nekotoroy chasti Staroy i Novoy Finlyandii (Mineralogical description of a part of old and new Finland). Gornyi Zhurnal − Mining Journal. 1828, Book 10.

3. Iossa G. A. Izvestie o nahozhdenii olova i medi v Pitkyarante v Finlyandii (News of tin and copper findings in Pitkyaranta in Finland). Gornyi Zhurnal − Mining Journal, 1834, Book 10.

4. Opis i otsenka Mitrofanovskogo medno-olovyannogo plavilnogo zavoda v Impilakhtinskom prikhode Serdobolskogo uezda (Inventory and evaluation of a copper-tin smelting plant in Impilakhtinsk, Serdobolski district). Leningrad Regional City Archive of Vyborg, 1844, Fund 1, Inventory No. 2, Document 35.

5. Shiryaev A. M. Neskolko slov o Pitkyarantskikh rudnikakh i zavodakh (A few words about mines and plants in Pitkyaranta). Gornyi Zhurnal − Mining Journal. 1864, Book 1.

6. Andreev A. P. Ladozhskoe ozero (Ladoga Lake). Saint-Petersburg : Printing Establishment of Sea Ministry, Main Admiralty, 1875.

7. Grendal G. Pitkyaranta. Kratkoe opisanie Pitkyarantskogo mestorozhdeniya, rudnikov i zavodov (Pitkyaranta. Short description of a deposits, mines and plants in Pitkyaranta). Saint Petersburg : Typolithography of N. E. Vineke, 1896, p. 50

8. Trustedt O. G. Pitkyarantskie rudniki i zavody (Mines and plants of Pitkyaranta). Helsingfors, 1907.