Executive Committee of Russian Geological Society (Moscow, Russia):

Petrov I. M., Member of a Committee, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, e-mail: ipetrov@infomine.ru

The paper studies the iron ore industry in the Russian Empire in the late XIX and early XX centuries. It shows the dynamics of mining of iron ore in the 1885-1917 years. Active mining Krivoy Rog started the second half of the 80-ies of the XIX century, this led to an increase in iron ore mining in Russia. The greatest increase in iron ore production was achieved in 1910-14 XX century.
In the period from 1885 to 1913 extraction of iron ore in Russia increased almost 9 times. During this period, in the south of Russia, this figure increased by 58 times, in the Urals - by 2.8 times, in Central Russia and the Kingdom of Poland - respectively 3.8 and 2.3 times.
The author describes the main iron ore producing regions in the Russian Empire, which included the south of Russia, the Urals, Central and Northern Russia, the Kingdom of Poland. Share of Krivoy Rog iron ore basin in iron ore mining in the Russian Empire was 72-73%. However, the role of the Urals significantly decreased to 19% in 1913.
The article noted Russian entrepreneurs, scientists and geologists, who contributed to the history of the iron ore industry.
The paper also presents statistics on the largest Russian company to mine iron ore in the various regions. On the territory of several large mines early XX century now operate a modern enterprise. The author finds an analogy to the current situation in the iron ore market in Russia.

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