GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE and MINING DEVELOPMENT of the URALS Post-Conference Tour Perm – Yekaterinburg – Nizhny Tagil - Perm 19-22 July 2019

Home , Bergamt, Demidov, Nevyansk, Nizhny Tagil, Severouralsk, Vysotsky (skyscraper)

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE AND MINING DEVELOPMENT OF THE URALS Post-conference tour Perm – Yekaterinburg – Nizhny Tagil - Perm 19-22 July 2019

Editors Liudmila S. Rybnikova, Oksana B. Naumova Yekaterinburg-Perm, 2019 Geological structure and mining development of the Urals. Post-conference tour. Perm–Yekaterinburg– Nizhny Tagil–Perm. 19-22 July 2019 / Liudmila S. Rybnikova, Oksana B. Naumova, Petr A. Rybnikov, Vladimir A. Naumov, Vera Yu. Navolokina, Vitaliy E. Sosnin, Igor S. Kopylov. 2019. – 32 p. ISBN

Since 1979 the «International Mine Water Association» has been organizing annual international meetings focused on various aspects of mine water, including its hydrology, chemistry, biology, environmental aspects, and potential reuse, as well as how best to control it through better prediction, mine water management and treatment. The IMWA2019 Conference theme was «Mine water: technological and ecological challenges». The conference was held during 15-19 July, 2019 in Perm on the basis of Perm State University. The post- conference tour gives a unique opportunity to cross the Ural mountains twice and see the features of change in the geological situation in different structural- tectonic zones: from the East European platform, the depression area of the region (foredeep), Western Ural fold system (advanced folds of the Urals), the Central Urals mega anticlinorium (Central Ural uplift), the Main Ural fault and the Tagil synclinorium (deflection) of Tagil-Magnitogorsk mega synclinorium. The main stops along the route are the old Ural cities founded as places of development of mining and historical sites. These are the points of discovery of the first oil in the Volga-Ural oil and gas province, the first diamond, the first ore and placer gold, the oldest iron ore and copper deposits. The tour includes visit of Europe-Asia Border; Gold and Mine Museum (Berezovsky); Museum of geology at Ural State Mining University (Yekaterinburg); the Demidovs’ Leaning Tower (Nevyansk); Eco-industrial technology park «The Demidov’s Museum- plant» and The Main open-cut mine of Vysokogorsky ore mining and processing plant (Nizhny Tagil); a monument to the first diamond in Europe (Promysla village); a stele to oil discovery (Verkhnechusovskiye Gorodki). Post conference tour was jointly organized by the Institute of mining of Ural Brunch of Russian Academy of Science (Yekaterinburg) and Perm State University.

Front cover: Ural "pyramids" - abandoned talc quarry "Old lens" (photo by Andrey Firsov) Back cover: The Russian Gold Rush. National Geographic in Russia (after https://vk.com/miningmuseum?z=video-77123354_456239027%2Fvideos- 77123354%2Fpl_-77123354_-2)

During the tour you will have a unique opportunity to cross the Ural mountains twice and see the features of change in the geological situation in different structural-tectonic zones: from the East European platform, the depression area of the region (foredeep), Western Ural fold system (advanced folds of the Urals), the Central Urals mega anticlinorium (Central Ural uplift), the Main Ural fault and the Tagil synclinorium (deflection) of Tagil-Magnitogorsk mega synclinorium (fig. 1).

Figure 1. Geological map of the tour area

The main stops along the route are the old Ural cities founded as places of development of mining and historical sites. These are the points of discovery of the first oil in the Volga-Ural oil and gas province, the first diamond, the first ore and placer gold, the oldest iron ore and copper deposits.

The geological structure of the Urals The Urals is the border between two parts of the world — Europe and Asia. The border is drawn along the axial part of the mountains, and in the South-East along the Ural river. As far as the nature is concerned, the Urals is closer to Europe than Asia in this respect which is influenced by its clearly expressed asymmetry. The mountain belt of the Urals has affected the climate of the region which varies in three directions: from North to South, from West to East and from the foothills of the mountains to their tops. The North is 3 characterized by permafrost, the South – by fertile soil. The average temperature in winter in the North is -20oC, in summer +15oC, in the South it is -16oC in winter, and +20oC in summer. The "stone belt" of the Urals and the adjacent elevated plains of the Urals extend from the shores of the Arctic ocean in the North to the semi-desert regions of Kazakhstan in the South. For more than 2,500 km they divide the East European and West Siberian plains. The main part of this region is the Ural mountain system. The Ural mountains consist of low ridges and massifs, the highest of them are located in the Circumpolar (Narodnaya mountain — 1895 m), Northern (Telposiz mountain — 1617 m) and Southern (Yamantau mountain — 1640 m) Urals. The massifs of the Middle Urals are much lower, usually no higher than 600-650 m. The Western and Eastern foothills of the Urals and foothill plains are dissected by deep river valleys. In the Urals and near the Urals region there are many rivers and lakes, several hundred ponds and reservoirs were created. From the point of view of the geosynclinal approach, the Urals belongs to the number of ancient folded mountains (fig. 2). In the Paleozoic there was a geosyncline here; the seas rarely left its territory. They changed their boundaries and depth leaving behind a powerful thickness of precipitation. The Urals experienced several orogenic processes. Caledonian folding was manifested in the lower Paleozoic (including the Salair folding in the Cambrian). Although it covered a large area, it was not the main one for the Ural mountains. The main folding was Hercynian. In the East of the Urals it began in the middle Carboniferous, and during the Permian period it spread to the Western slopes. (Kopylov et al., 2015). The most intense Hercynian folding was in the East of the ridge. It was manifested here in the formation of strongly compressed, often overturned and recumbent folds, complicated by large thrusts, leading to the emergence of scaly structures. Folding in the East of the Urals was accompanied by deep splits and the introduction of powerful granite intrusions — up to 100-120 km long and 50-60 km wide. Much less energetic was the folding on the Western slope, it is dominated by simple folds, thrusts are rare, there are no intrusions. Tectonic pressure, which resulted in folding, was directed from East to West. The rigid foundation of the East European platform prevented the spread of folding in this direction. The most compressed folds are in the Ufa plateau where they are very complex even on the Western slope. After the Hercynian orogenesis, folded mountains appeared where there had been the Ural geosyncline, and later tectonic movements were in the form of block uplifts and descents which were accompanied by places, in a limited area, by intensive folding and fractures. In Triassic-Jura most of the Urals remained land, there was erosion processing of the mountainous terrain and its surface, mainly on the Eastern slope of the ridge.

Reference designations: 1 – schists, sandstones, limestones; 2 – granites, quartzites, gneisses, amphibolites, crystalline schist, eclogites; 3 – mudshales, argilliths, aleurolites; 4 – phyllites, siliceious schits, limestones, andesites, tonalities, diorites, basalts, dolerites, gabbro, pyroxenits, ophiolitic peridotites

Figure 2. Schematic geological section of the Urals – contact of lithospheric plates: two borders "Europe-Asia". Done by I. I. Popov on the basis of A. A. Savelyev’s materials (Schematic …, 2018) 5

Figure 3. Tectonic scheme of the Middle and Northern Urals (VSEGEI, PSU)

Geological structures which we are going to cross during the tour from West to East are: the East European platform (sedimentary cover of the Russian plate), the Ural foredeep (depressional area), the Western Urals area of folding, the Central Ural uplift, Trans-Ural megazone (Tagil mega synclinorium) (fig. 3). Eastern European platform. In its structure there are two structural floors: the ancient crystalline basement of the Archean-lower Proterozoic age (Karelian, more than 1.6 billion years old) and subhorizontically lying on it sedimentary cover of upper Proterozoic, Paleozoic sediments (Russian plate). The sedimentary cover consists of little-modified sedimentary rocks of different ages – from the upper Proterozoic (Riphean, Vendian) to Cenozoic included. At the base of the platform cover there are terrigenous sediments of the Vendian- Cambria; higher in the section, subhorizontally lie carbonate and terrigenous- carbonate rocks of the middle and upper Devon, carbonate and terrigenous- carbonate rocks of Carboniferous, carbonate – lower Permian, terrigenous - middle and upper Permian, Triassic and Jurassic. Most of the territory is occupied by continental rocks of the upper and middle parts of the Permian system, discovered here by Roderick Impi Murchisson (1792–1871). Murchisson is a British geologist and traveler who first described and explored the Silurian, Devonian and Permian geological periods. Murchison made three trips to Russia. According to the research results, he justified for the first time the allocation of a new geological system – the Permian period. In the sedimentary cover, flat positive and negative rounded structures are developed: mega arches, arches, mega cavities and hollows, smaller domes, shafts and depressions, local uplifts. Ural Boundary Deflection (depression area) is a boundary linear structure between the platform and the folded area, both in geographical position and internal structure. The Ural Boundary Deflection is a large synclinal structure separating the Russian plate from the Ural Boundary Deflection Ural folded region. The boundary deflection is characterized by a deeper foundation than on the platform (up to 9 km or more). In the cut of the foredeep are allocated thick series of rocks of halogen (carbonate-sulphate-salt) formations of the Kungur layer of the Permian system and biogenic reefs of artinskaya tier of the Permian system. Mainly lower Permian sediments are exposed In the trough, partly overlain by middle Permian sediments. In the trough from North to South, Verkhnepecherskiy, Solikamsk and the Yuryuzano-Sylvenskaya depressions, separated by Kolvinskoe and Kosvinskaya-Chusovskaya saddles, are distinguished. The Western Urals Area of Folding (advanced folds of the Urals) is located to the East of the Ural boundary deflection and separated from it by Vsevolodo- Vil'venskiy thrust. The Western Urals Area of Folding extends in a continuous band of about 40 km wide along the Western slope of the Middle Urals and widens drastically up to 80-100 km to the East of the Northern Urals. The Western Urals Area of Folding is a large monoclinal structure with a gradual change, from West to East, of relatively young Paleozoic rocks to more ancient 8 ones. There are mainly terrigenous and carbonate rocks of Devonian, Carboniferous and lower Permian periods. Vendian, Ordovician and Silurian deposits have a limited spread. Relatively low-power intrusions (dikes) of diabases and gabbro-diabases were established in Silurian and Ordovician sediments. The Western Urals Area of Folding is greatly complicated by thrusts, folds, from large and complex to small and numerous minor fractures in the form of dumps, discharges, steep thrusts in the East zone and very shallow in the West. The zone is a complex structure of linear folds of the Ural direction, complicated by discontinuous tectonics of thrust character and associated with them tectonic "outliers" and "windows". In the Western Urals Area of Folding, primarily offshore deposits of the middle Ordovician to early Permian periods are developed. The fullness of the Paleozoic section within the Western Urals Area of Folding is of changeable character. The Central Ural Uplift or the Central Urals mega anticlinorium is located further to the East from the Western Urals Area of Folding. The Central Ural Uplift is located submeridionally and is the axial part of the Ural folded region. The is 600 km long (from the riverhead of the Pechora river to the riverhead of the Chusovaya river), its width is 30-80 km. The Tectonic boundary of the uplift zone folding is running over a series of fractures and thrusts. The Eastern border of the Central Ural Uplift is the Main Ural fracture. The Central Ural Uplift is divided into a number of megachilinae and magazinemores, which are complicated by smaller folds of different orders, forms and morphology, and plenty of fractures. The ancient metamorphosed sedimentary and volcanogenic- sedimentary rocks of Riphean, Vendian and lower Paleozoic (Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian) are widespread here. They are intensively dislocated and broken through by small intrusions of ultrabasic, basic and acidic igneous rocks. Intrusive formations are most common within the Central Ural uplift. These are numerous complexes reflecting the epoch of tectonic-magmatic activations in the age range from early Vendian to early Devonian. The most ancient are magmatic complexes of Archean-Proterozoic age, developed in the crystal base of the East European platform. The information about them is rather limited, it is only known that in active contacts with crystalline schists, gneisses and granulites there are gabbro-norites, gabbro and plagiogranites. The Ural mountains were formed as a result of collision of East European and West Siberian platforms. The growth of the Ural mountains ceased long ago, the mountains are being gradually destroyed. However, tectonic shifts, the scale of which is not comparable with younger mountains, are constantly recorded in the Urals. Nevertheless, every year seismologists fix up to five shocks in the Ural mountains with a magnitude of more than 2 points. In total, more than a hundred notable earthquakes have been recorded since the XIX century (The structure …, 2006).

The strongest earthquake occurred on August 17, 1914 in the village of Bilimbay near the town of Pervouralsk (40 km away from Ekaterinburg) with pushes of 6.5 points. Due to this, chimneys collapsed in Bilimbay, in Yekaterinburg windows and doors got broken in some houses. There were no casualties or serious damage. On September 5, 2018, an earthquake with a magnitude of about 5.5 points occurred. The epicenter was located near the city of Katav-Ivanovo in the Chelyabinsk region (Southern Urals). Pushes were also felt in neighboring Bashkiria and Sverdlovsk region. Technogenic earthquakes occur in the Urals as well – the so-called rock bump. Many mines collapse which is accompanied by pushes. The shift and collapse of entire layers, weighing thousands of tons, resonate on the surface. Such mountain blows are not uncommon in Severouralsk, where the Severouralsk bauxite deposit is being worked out. Their strength reaches 3 points, which is quite noticeable, but, as a rule, does not lead to destruction. Among the natural resources of the Urals, its mineral resources are of paramount importance (fig. 4). Academician Alexander E. Fersman called the Urals "the pearl of the mineral kingdom", "mineralogical paradise". More than 5 thousand minerals are found here. In the Ilmen reserve (Southern Urals), on the area of about 300 km, 5% of all the Earth’s minerals are concentrated.

Figure 4. Rare emerald weighing 1.6 kg found at a depth of 260 m in the Malyshevsky deposit of emeralds; the largest find in the last 30 years 10

The complex geological structure of the Urals determined the exceptional wealth and diversity of its resources, and the long processes of destruction of the Ural mountain system, exposed these riches making them available for exploitation. Back in the 16 c., deposits of rock salt and copper sandstone were developed on the Western outskirts of the Urals. In the 17 c., ironworks were built, the construction of one of them became the foundation of the "capital of the Urals" - the city of Yekaterinburg. Gold and platinum deposits were found, precious stones were found on the Eastern slope. The skill to search for ore, to smelt metal, to make weapons and art products, to handle gems was passed from generation to generation. Numerous deposits of high-quality iron and copper ores, rare and non- ferrous metals, gold, silver, platinum, bauxite, stone and potassium salts were explored here (fig. 5). In addition, oil, natural gas, coal, asbestos, precious and semi-precious stones were found (Information and Analytical …, 2018).

Figure 5. Map of mineral deposits (green fields - oil deposits)

Schedule and main points of the route Day 1: Perm; Europe-Asia Border; Yekaterinburg. Day 2: Gold and Mine Museum in Berezovsky; Museum of geology at Ural State Mining University; A viewpoint in the business centre «Vysotsky». Day 3: Nevyansk, The Demidovs’ Leaning Tower of Nevyansk; Nizhny Tagil, Eco-industrial technology park «The Demidov’s Museum-plant». Day 4: Nizhny Tagil, The Main open-cut mine of Vysokogorsky ore mining and processing plant; Promysla village, a monument to the first diamond in Europe; Verkhnechusovskiye Gorodki, a stele to oil discovery; Perm.

Europe-Asia Border Ekaterinburg is considered to be the most Eastern European city. The history of scientific fixation of the border between Europe and Asia along the Ural watershed is 300 years old. The credit for this belongs to a prominent statesman, a famous historian and encyclopedist, the first researcher of the Urals and one of the founders of the city of Yekaterinburg Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev.

Figure 6. Europe – Asia Obelisk 12

The watershed divides the basins of the Volga (the Caspian sea) and the Ob (the Arctic ocean) rivers. The monument conveys a special position of the place. The rocks lying at its footing were brought from the extreme points of Europe and Asia: from the Rock Cape (Portugal) and the Dezhnev Cape (Far East, Russia) (fig. 6). The obelisk represents two symbolic letters, "E" and "A", intertwined with each other.

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg is the fourth most populous city in Russia, an administrative centre of the Sverdlovsk region and the Ural Federal District. The population is about 1.5 million people. The history of Yekaterinburg starts in 1723, when Peter the Great (1672 - 1725) signed a decree to found a metallurgic factory-fortress on the bank of the Iset River. The location was chosen by Vasiliy Tatishchev, but the building of the biggest metallurgic factory in Europe was completed under the leadership of Wilhelm Gennin. The city was named after Empress Catherine I, the second wife of Peter the Great.

Figure 7. «Plotinka» – the heart of the city: mechanisms of the metallurgic factory

At the heart of the factory was a dam forcing the river to turn water-filling wheels, supplying the factory’s mechanisms with energy. This factory marked 13 the beginning of the city’s construction. The dam was built of larch logs and granite. After it was built, a pond formed on the river called the “City Pond”. The well-preserved dam is the oldest structure in the city. In the city’s folklore, this place is known as «Plotinka» (eng. A little dam) (fig. 7). From the very beginning, Yekaterinburg was planned as the main administrative centre of the Ural region, as the capital of the Ural “mining kingdom”. One of the first stone buildings was Ober-Bergamt or Chancellery of Headquarters of Siberian and Kazan factories. Until 1919, more than 150 factories, mines and gold works located on both sides of the Ural mountains were managed from Yekaterinburg. In 1807, Yekaterinburg was given a status of the only “mountain city” in Russia, which proved its right to be called the capital of mining and metallurgical region. It was underneath the head of the Ural mining plants, Minister of Finance and the Emperor until 1863. In 1878, the first railway in the Ural region was built: it connected Yekaterinburg with its plants and Perm, a principal town of the province. The Trans-Siberian railway, the longest railway in the world, goes through Yekaterinburg connecting Central Russia and Siberia. In 1917, the Revolution broke out in Russia and the power was taken by the Soviets. This shift in power was overshadowed by a tragedy. In the night from July 16th to July 17th the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his family, and four servants were murdered in the house of a merchant Ipatiev. In 1977, this house was demolished, and in 2004 on the very place the «Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land» was built.

Figure 8. A view on Ekaterinburg-city from the bank of the city pond

In 1924, the city was renamed and it became known as Sverdlovsk. In 1991, the city was given its original name, Yekaterinburg, back. The city is the hometown of Boris Eltsin, the first President of the Russian Federation. One of the main landmarks is the Presidential Centre of Boris Eltsin (Eltsin-centre). It is a social, cultural and educational centre which was opened in 2015 next to the Ekaterinburg-City quarter under the same-name fund auspices (fig. 8). The centre covers a broad range of interests: project support in the spheres of education, science and research, charity and culture.

A viewpoint in the business centre «Vysotsky» «Vysotsky» is the first skyscraper built in Yekaterinburg, in the Ural region and outside of Moscow (fig. 9). It was named after a famous and popular artist and singer of the 20th c. Vladimir Vysotsky. Today, «Vysotsky» and the «Iset» tower are the tallest buildings in Russia east of Moscow. «Vysotsky» is a 188,3-metre-tall skyscraper and there are 54 floors. On the 52nd floor (186 m), there is a viewpoint. From this point, you can see for 25 km in every direction and get a view of all the city districts, satellite towns, other nearby towns, and the middle part of the Urals.

Figure 9. Business Centre «Vysotsky» and its viewpoint

Gold and mine museum in Berezovsky The Ural region is given a credit in the history of the Russian gold (Albreht et al., 2015). The first deposit of free gold was found by a peasant Erofey Markov in Shartash village near Yekaterinburg in 1745. In 1747, a shaft was built, by the early 19th century about 70 gold veins were discovered in this area. This unique deposit – a well-known Berezovsky gold deposit – was included in all geology coursebooks all over the world. It was characterised by high gold values: 450 gramms per tonne. By the end of the 18th century, 140 gold veins (dykes) were discovered in the head of the basin of the Iset river and they were developed by

15 tens of gold mines. The area with gold veins which stretched along the Iset river was called «A Gold valley of Yekaterinburg» (Gladkova, 1998). At the beginning, more than 1 kg of gold per year was mined in the deposit. By the early 19th century, the deposit consisted of more than 50 gold mines. Fifty years later, the volume of gold excavation was 10 poods (1 pood=16.38 kg) of gold per year. But all this gold was ore gold: it was produced via mining gold bearing ores, and it was too little to satisfy the country's demand. 1814 is a very important year in the history of the Ural, Russian and global goldmining. In that year, a very important discovery was made in the Urals: first- ever alluvial gold was found in the Urals as well as in Russia. It was found by Lev Brusnitsin, who already had significant achievements in gold ore finding. In 1814, he explored anthropogenic waste dumps left after gold panning. Brusnitsin paid attention to 2 grains of gold. They were different in their shape and appearance from gold produced by breaking quartz veins. The grains were neither squashed nor torn, they were smooth and of a darker colour. It was alluvial gold. Brusnitsyn began to search for alluvial gold in the valley of the Berezovka river. In the skin coat, there was very little gold, but at a depth of about 1 m, a 5– 10 cm sand spit was discovered which contained top-cut grade of alluvial gold, more than 200 g/m3. This is how the first biggest industrial alluvial gold deposit was discovered in the basins of the Berezovka and Pyshma rivers. At the end of September 1814, the first alluvial gold mine in Russia started its work on the Berezovka riverbank. From September 21st to November 1st 1814, 8,000 poods of sands (131 tonnes) were washed and 2 pounds 63 zolotniks of gold (1088 g, gold content – 8.3 mg/tonne) were produced. The Brusnitsyn’s discovery made a revolution in gold mining in Russia. Alluvial gold mining was four times cheaper than ore mining because there was no need to build shafts, fight underground waters and break ore. In alluvial deposits everything has been done by the nature. Moreover, alluvial deposits were open cut. Brusnitsyn was given a credit for developing equipment and technology to extract gold by washing gravel in straight-through gateways. Pebbles and gravel- cobble fracture were not broken but washed and sifted in seeves. These concentrates were cleaned, and pure gold was produced. To extract gold, Brusnitsyn used amalgamating approach, which was quite advanced at that time. He founded a school of goldminers. He taught people how to search for and mine alluvial gold deposits first in the Urals, then in Siberia, and then all over the world. As a result, the volumes of alluvial gold mining significantly outweighed the volumes of ore gold mining. In 1823, there were about 200 mines of alluvial gold in the Urals, where up to 1.7 tons of gold per year were extracted, whereas the volume of native gold mining was 0.29 tons per year. Earlier, the Russian share of the global gold mining was about 3 percent, but after the Brusnitsyn’s discovery, it went up to 50 percent. As a result, by 1845, Russia was number 1 in 16 terms of gold mined (47 percent of the global volume) and kept the position for 30 years. The Berezovsky alluvial gold deposit has become a place where Russian and global gold mining began. After the Brusnitsyn’s discovery and educating goldminers, the first-ever «gold rush» was brought about: first, in the Urals, then in Siberia. Later gold rush was spread to California, Alaska, Klondike and Australia. During its golden age – from the first half of the 19th century and on – the Urals kept surprising with its treasures and gold nuggets every year. Alluvial gold was most frequent in the Southern Ural. There, in the Urals, the biggest gold nuggets in the history of the Russian gold mining have been found (fig. 10). There, a nugget «A big triangle» (36 kg) has been found (History…, 2018).

Figure 10. A gold nugget «A big triangle», Miass River valley, Southern Ural, weight – 36 kg

Gold and Mine Museum in Berezovsky has collected unique original tools and devices which were used in ore and placer gold mining: a gold-washer, blades, a dipper, blueprints for a gold mining machine, an amalgam setup, etc. One of the blueprints represents an underground town which is located under the present-day Berezovsky, where mines can be 700–800 meters deep. The Mine Museum – a museum in a mine – is an unusual interactive amusement dedicated to goldmining in Berezovsky. There, you can find two rooms (overground and underground) with some exhibitions, different workshops, a smithery and a brick saw. Also, there is the first gold panning workshop in Russia which is done using Siberian and American pans. A tour 17 around the mine is a great mining experience during which a visitor learns a lot of unforgettable legends and ventures into gold mining. Here, you can also see a model of a digger’s house, mine lamps, druses of amethyst and other minerals which can be found at the Berezovsky site. In the beginning, the main problem at the mining site was very high water level. To deal with the problem, expensive drain adits were built. This ground water was used to flush milled ore which compensated the expenses. In addition, the adit building helped locate productive mineral veins.

Map symbols: Dikes Rock sinkholes: - small - medium - big - very big

Figure 11. Gold ore dykes and sinkholes in Berezovsky (Kornilkov et al., 2017)

It was believed that the reason for the flooding of the mines was the Shatrash Lake bordering the drainage basin of the Berezovka River. It was suggested that draining of the lake waters would bring about a long-lasting result. However, the lake is surrounded by a number of swamps, and if the water removal could have actually helped solve the problem, swamps would have been the first reservoirs to drain. In July 1832, expensive drilling in the granite of an 18 adit in the northern part of the lake was completed at a depth of 5 m, several ditches were dug, and the water from Shatrash was redirected to Pyshma River via the small river Kalinovka. Although the lake level dropped by almost 5 m, and its area shrinking by 16 times, the amount of water flowing into the mine didn’t go down and the water level in wells around the lake didn’t decrease. Other attempts to drain the lake haven’t been made and now it is a part of recreation area (Vladimirov, 2013). In modern times, the Berezovsky site is developed to a depth of more than 500 m. Geological exploration is being done at a depth of more than 700 m. A lot of sinkholes have begun to form under the city area (fig. 11) and in order to avoid collapsing it is planned to fill the cavities with muds.

Museum of geology at Ural State Mining University There is a rich collection of more than 40.000 geological specimens from the Ural region. There different sections in this museum, such as minerology, natural resources, petrography, general and historic geology. The museum was opened in August 1937 after the 17th International Geological Congress was held in Moscow. This session included a visit to the Urals. The Ural mining province has always attracted people with its minerals, ores, precious and semiprecious stones, and other natural resources. The first visitors of the Ural Geological Exhibition were delegates of the Congress from France, the USA, China, England, Italy and India. In 1938, the ‘ex-geological exhibition’ was turned into a geological laboratory, which became the museum of Ural Mining University.

Figure 12. A piece of quartz Malyutka (eng. A little one) (784 kg) and azurite (a druse of crystals) with malachite in the museum

The mineral collection contains gold and platinum, amethysts, emeralds, topazes, red manganese, green malachite, etc., also, there is a unique collection of samples of the Chelyabinsk meteorite1. Most exhibited minerals were first found in the Urals and got their names after the location where they were found e.g. ilmenite (titanic iron ore), ilmenorutil, syssertskite, nevyanskite, wischnevite, etc. (fig. 12). The centre piece of the collection is a 170-cm-tall quartz crystal which weighs 784 kg.

Nevyansk and the Demidov’s Leaning Tower of Nevyansk Nevyansk is the first real processing plant in the Urals, which laid the foundations of the mining and metallurgical civilization. The town is situated on River Neyva on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals, 99 km to the north of Ekaterinburg. The river forms a pond in the town centre. A settlement, a town-to-be, was founded near one of the first state metallurgical plants in the Urals in the early 1700s (fig. 13). In 1702, the plant was handed over to an industrialist Nikita Demidov by the state. Various weapons were produced along with cast iron and iron. The plant became the biggest metallurgical plant in Russia in the first decades since its foundation, and this status was kept until the mid-18th c.

Figure 13. A stele Nevyansk

1 On February 15, 2013, a small asteroid collided with fragments of the earth's surface. Superbolide collapsed in the vicinity of the city of Chelyabinsk (Southern Urals) at an altitude of 15-25 km.

In the first half of the 19th c., deposits of alluvial gold were discovered, and the town became of the gold mining centres. The Demidovs’ Leaning Tower of Nevyansk is the most well-known monument in the Ural region. It is often called the Russian Pisa tower. It was built in 1732. It is 57.5 metres high, its basement is a square with a side of 9.5 m. Its verticality deviation is about 1.85 m in the highest point, and the biggest angle of tilt is at the lowest level. It started to lean because of soil subsidence during its construction. Builders had to complete this sword-like construction in an inclined position. In the 1960s, scholars were examining the tower for three years. It was defined that the tower yields only by 0.9 mm per year but the inclination did not increase and the buildings do not shift. A clock mechanism, which is installed on the upper lever, is still functioning. The clock was brought from England and it cost 5.000 rubles in gold. It is thought that the mechanism was made by Langley Bradley and the bells were cast by an English clockmaker Richard Phelps. These masters are also famous for making the clock for St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The clock on the Nevyansk Tower were installed in 1732 and it has been fixed only three times. It is still manually wound like it was in those days: every day a clocksmith climbs the tower and turns a winch.

Figure 14. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour and The Demidovs’ Leaning Tower of Nevyansk

The top of the tower functions as a lightning rod. This useful invention was made before Benjamin Franklin patented his own invention. At some point in history, the tower hosted a plant laboratory, a factory archive, a treasurer’s office, a prison and a viewpoint. Today, it is a landmark with a wonderful viewpoint and an interesting museum in the basement (fig. 14).

Nizhny Tagil, eco-industrial technology park «The Demidov’s Museum-plant». Nizhny Tagil is the second most populous city in the Sverdlovsk region (about 350.000 people) after Yekaterinburg. It is also the second biggest industrial centre of the region. The city was founded by Nikita and Akinfy Demidov, two industrialists from Tula, in 1722. It became the capital of their ‘iron kingdom’ and one of the biggest mining and metallurgical centres. Nizhny Tagil is located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains in the valley of River Tagil and its tributaries. The city is situated along the water- parting line of Asian and European rivers where several signs and obelisks are installed to indicate a geographical border between Europe and Asia. The history of Nizhny Tagil started in the early 17th c. Peter the Great permitted Demidov to build ironworks in that area. The location combined several features important for mining development: interminable undisturbed forests, rivers, which can be used to build dams, and ore deposits with little phosphorus and sulfur in it. The Ural metal with a brand ‘Stary sobol’ (eng. Old sable), which was made from Tagil magnetic iron, was transported to Europe down such rivers as the Chusovaya, the Kama and the Volga. This product took a leading position in the global market. (fig. 15). Some historians found some similarities between the metal and sable fur. The metal was produced from the ore which contained some copper. As a result, the iron was ‘soft’ like sable fur, it had a good forging property. The Demidov industrialists focused their business on mining and metallurgy. It inspired formation and development of other industrial sectors. Nizhny Tagil became the place where machinery and equipment for mining and steelmaking industries were made. At the beginning of the 19th c. the biggest copper-ore deposit in Russia for that time was discovered near the village. Several stone processing factories were built there because deposits of gold, platinum, precious and semi-precious stones were discovered too. It is believed that copper which was used to coat the American Statue of Liberty was mined in these territories. Modern Nizhny Tagil is one of the biggest centres of iron industry and machinery engineering in the Middle Ural. However, industrial development caused some environmental problems: Nizhny Tagil is one of the most polluted cities in the Urals. In the late 17th – early 18th centuries some copper ore was discovered near the Mount Vysokaya and along River Vyya. Cast iron, iron and copper processing plants were built there by the edict of Peter the Great. A factory in 22

Nizhny Tagil was built by the Demidov dynasty in 1725. This factory was one of the biggest and leading factories of this type not only in Russia, but also in Europe.

Figure 15. Stary Sobol (eng. Old sable), The Demidovs’ seal

The factory was functioning nonstop for almost 300 years. In 1987, an old blast-furnace department was stopped and the industrial centre was turned into a museum. Today, it is the only factory-museum in Russia which recounts the history of iron industry development. The layout of the factory was preserved. Buildings and equipment from the 19th–20th centuries demonstrate the development of metallurgical technology and the improvement of power generation. At the museum, you can witness the development of a typical factory in the Ural region using different energy sources: water, steam and electricity. At the territory, there are blast and open-hearth steel furnaces, a travelling crane, a water tower, engineering workshops, water containers and an 1892 water turbine which started a rolling mill (all these objects were well preserved). Also, you can find a railway museum there, where rolling stock and factory machinery from the 19th–20th cc. are exhibited. (fig. 17).

Figure 17. The Demidov’s Factory (a museum)

The Main open-cut mine of Vysokogorsky ore mining and processing plant The mining of Vysokogorsky iron ore deposit began in 1721. Ores which were mined there were delivered to many metallurgical plants. The Vysokogorsky iron mine was one of the main plants which supported the development of metallurgy in the Urals. Iron constituted more that 60 percent of the ores which were mined in the times of the Demidovs (fig. 18). Today, this ratio is two times lower. In the second haif of the 20-th c. underground ore mining begun in the area surrounding the main open-cut mine. The area of the Vysokogorsky ore mining and processing plant is almost 2,000 hectares (fig. 19). On this territory, there are abandoned and open-cut mines in use, rock cavity zones, refuse dumps of overburden soils and mill tailings. As a result of nearly three centuries of activity of high-ranking iron mines, the volume of excavations is 182 million m3 from the area of 384 hectares. Refuse heaps and tailing dams are placed on the territory of 597 hectares and about 100 million m3 of refuse have been collected. Rock caving zones take up 158 hectares of soil taken out of use.

Figure 18 – Brown clay iron from the Vysokogorsky iron ore deposit, ore content was 60 percent

On the observation platform of Vysokogorsky ore mining and processing plant, you can see the process of recultivation of the Main quarry, which since 1995 has been laid with tailings. Iron ore in the Main quarry was mined for almost 270 years; the volume of the developed space is 72 million cubic meters. The depth in the middle of the quarry is 270 meters, the area is 78 hectares (Oslamenko, 1999). The volume of quarry excavations amounted to 182 million m3 on an area of 384 hectares. Waste dumps and tailing dumps are located on 597 hectares, about 100 million m3 of waste has been accumulated. Collapse zones from operating underground mining occupy 158 hectares of land practically abandoned (fig. 18). Pulp comes to the quarry by gravity via a system of cutting ditches covering a 1.2 km distance. Today, the quarry is filled to more than a third. The uniqueness of such an approach is that under the mine, the floor of the Magnetitovaya mine is being exhausted. In order to provide safety for miners some specific scientific and engineering solutions had to be made.

Figure 19. A view over Mednorudyansky (on the left: eng. Copper-ore) and Main (on the right) quarries

Karst canals, rock cavity and collapse zones and load cracks created unfavourable conditions making tailing dam formation in the main open-cut mine inevitable due to a direct hydraulic connection between the tailing dam and the mine. At the moment of the tailing dam formation, the level of a depression pit in the Magnetitovaya mine was –300 m. If pulp had been flushed, the inflow of water to a drain sump could have increased sharply and threatened slurry ingress into underground mine.

Figure 20. Recultivation of the Main open-cut mine

In order to provide safety under the ground, fixed reinforced concrete beams for the mine levels at–130 m and –15- were designed and built. A system of interlayers made of clay matter was created as the main way to decrease the leakage of water from the tailing dam when its lower part is flooded. Technical recultivation of the Main open-cut mine will last approximately until 2030, and after that biological recultivation will start (fig. 20).

Promysla village, a monument to the first diamond in Europe A concept of Russian diamond was strongly associated with the Urals all over the world until the mid-20th c. The first diamond in Russia (as well as in Europe) was found on July 5th 1829 on the western slope of the Ural mountains in the Perm region in the basin of the river Koyva near Krestovosdvizhenskiye gold fields (now, Promysly village) (fig. 21). The diamond was found by a 14- year-old boy Pavel Popov. The boy brought his finding to a goldminer. At first, the stone was identified as a topaz. Later this mineral was identified as a diamond. Three days later another boy Ivan Sokolov found another diamond. The first crystal found weighed 105 mg, the other two – 132 and 253 mg. During 1829, four crystals were found in total. It is thought that a peasant serf Pavel Popov was freed as a result of finding a diamond.

Figure 21. A monument to the first diamond found in the Urals in Promysla

Most diamonds found before the Revolution (about 250 crystals) were found around Promysla from gold fields of feeders of the river Koyva. The 27

biggest one weighed 2.93 carats (1 carat = 200 mg). By 1955, 97 cases of diamond finds in the Urals were known: 92 of them happened in the Middle Ural, including 73 cases having happened on the western slope. After having done explorations in the Northern Ural in 1958–1966, diamondiferous fields were located. The Ural diamondiferous province stretches along the western slope of the Urals for 1,000 km. The fields are mainly of Paleogene-Neogene-Quaternary age, but diamonds were also found in more ancient deposits of Devonian and Silurian age. The ancient deposits are represented with sandstones, gravely sandstones and conglomerates; more modern deposits are represented with loose sand and coarse gravel. Orebodies of the Ural diamonds have not been found yet despite numerous announcements about discovering them in the Perm region and in the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Verkhnechusovskiye Gorodki, a stele to oil discovery After having discovered potassium salts under supervision of a professor of Perm State University Pavel Preobrazhensky, mapping of salt deposits started. In the southern zone of salt development, Preobrazhensky identified oil presence and industrial value of a cleft no.20 (Babushka, eng. Grandmother) in the area around Verkhnechusovskiye Gorodki (fig. 22).

Picture 22. Well no.20, an ancestor of Perm oil, a legendary Babushka. On the left - June, 1929; on the right – nowadays

In order to explore the deposit, specialists from Baku and Grozny, the advanced oil regions in the country, came to help. They drilled wells which enriched the Permian rock with a top, with oil. Today, the monument looks like a stele with a drop of oil on top, a drop of ‘black gold’. On the column, the first well no.20 is printed which gave the first oil of the Western Urals in 1929. In 1945 the Verkhnechusovskoy production field stopped working as the last tonne of oil was pumped out of this small Perm reef. The first well was called Babushka (eng. Grandmother) by oil workers. The discovery of Verkhnechusovskoy oil deposit was of a great importance for the state. It was the beginning of exploration of the Volga-Ural oil- and gas- bearing province which is one of the biggest in Russia.

REFERENCES 1. Albrecht V. G. Nabiullin F. M., Kleimenov D. A. The first gold of Russia: dedicated to the 270th anniversary of the discovery of the Berezovsky gold deposit. Ekaterinburg: Uralsky worker, 2015. 246 p. 2. Gladkova I. Yekaterinburg Golden Valley // Building Complex of the Middle Urals. 1998. № 11.http://www.1723.ru/read/dai/dai-13.htm 3. History of gold mining in Russia 200 years. http://www.expert- oil.com/cat/mostest/articles/Zolotodobycha-v-Rossii.html 4. Kopylov I.S., Naumov V.A., Naumova O.B., Kharitonov T.V. Gold and diamond cradle of Russia. Perm: PGNIU, 2015. 131p. 5. Kornilkov S.V., Rybnikov P.A., Vedernikov A.S., Panzhin A.A. On the concept of creating a geographic information system "Safety of nature and subsoil use" // Information technologies in the implementation of the environmental strategy for the development of the mining industry: Mining information and analytic. bullet 2017. P. 32-43. 6. Oslamenko V.V. Development of methods for the environmental rehabilitation of land disturbed by mining: Diss. ... Cand. technical sciences in the form of scientific reports. Nizhny Tagil, 1999. 32 p. 7. Rybnikova L. S., Rybnikov P. A., and Tarasova I. V. Geoecological Challenges of Mined- Out Open Pit Area Use in the Ural. Journal of Mining Science. January 2017, Volume 53, Issue 1. Р. 181–190. 8. Schematic geological section of the Polar Urals. Contact of the lithospheric plates. https://sever-press.ru/2018/12/26/geograficheskij-punkt-krajnjaja-vostochnaja-tochka- evropy-na-kontinente-priglashaet-na-poljarnyj-ural/ 9. The structure and dynamics of the lithosphere of Eastern Europe. The results of studies on the program EUROPROBE. M.: GEOKART: GEOS, 2006. 736 p. 10. Vladimirov Yu. I. Error of Alexander Humbolt // Ural Pathfinder. 2013. № 11 (677). P. 3-7.

Note