Gold rushes at any time and in all countries caused excitement, excitement, an increase in the number of crimes, the enrichment of some and the ruin of their other participants. A lot of adventure books have been written about them, where there are brave pioneers, prospectors and villains who want to take away their hard-earned gold.
Everything was different in tsarist Russia, which was the first to survive the gold rush, but there were no adventures, no lucky prospectors, since the main events unfolded back in the days of serfdom. It all started with the Berezovsky mine near Yekaterinburg.
Gold find
The city of Berezovsky "came into being" after the discovery of a gold deposit near the river of the same name, which flows 12 km from Yekaterinburg. The find turned out to be accidental, but this day went down in history as the beginning of gold mining in Tsarist Russia.
May 21, 1745 (June 1, according to a new style) Erofey Markov, conducting surveys on the river bank in search of rock crystal, discovered ore with golden inclusions. Being a believing and honest man, he took the found nugget to the office of the head of the mining Ural factories, so that specialists would check it for the presence of preciousmetal.
Gold was indeed found in the ore, but further searches for its deposits did not yield results for another 2 years. It got to the point that Yerofei Markov was accused of hiding the true place where he found the gold-bearing rock, but he was soon released on bail by his fellow villagers under house arrest.
It was only in 1747 that the first deposit was found, which later became the Berezovsky mine, and a year later a small workers' settlement grew up near it, where serfs, free prospectors and artisans who were driven to work lived. The extraction of ore gold with the primitive equipment that was in Russia at that time, and the constant deepening into the mine led to numerous deaths and injuries of serfs. But, as they said, there was a lot of this “goods” in the country, so new batches of serfs were sent to replace the dead.
Ore gold
This method of extracting the precious metal is an expensive and dangerous undertaking. All work was carried out by serfs in the dark adits of the mine, standing knee-deep in water. The mined ore was put into baskets and brought to the surface by hand.
Further processing of the material was carried out at the gold-grinding factory built near the Berezovsky gold mines, where it was crushed and washed until all the garbage settled, and the so-called black concentrate, which contained grains of gold, remained in the hands of the artisans.
Terrible working conditions, high mortality from injuries and diseases caused by cold and constantstanding in icy water, and would have continued if not for the stubbornness of one mining engineer.
Powder gold deposit
Brusnitsyn Lev Ivanovich worked as a mining engineer at the Ural gold mines. He was not satisfied with either the working conditions of the workers or the method of extracting the precious metal, so he spent several years of his life trying to find another deposit that did not require such sacrifices and investments.
He circumvented the ban imposed on exploration in this area, when in 1814 his attempts were crowned with success, and he found the largest alluvial gold deposit in the Pyshma and Berezovka valleys.
In the same year, not only the mine itself was opened, called "Berezovsky mines", but also the entire production for its extraction was completely re-equipped. The same Brusnitsyn designed and built special machines for rock washing, which significantly accelerated the extraction of the precious metal, made it cheaper and facilitated the work of the serfs.
Thanks to the stubbornness and faith in the we alth of the Russian land of one person, Russia has become a power leading in the extraction and processing of gold for 30 years. In addition, this enriched the region and made Yekaterinburg free from provincial influence. For 50,000 of the city's population, the Berezovsky gold mines have become a place of work. At least 2000 people living in it worked in the mines and mines.
Gold rush in Yekaterinburg
As it turned out, there was so much of this precious metal in the nearbyrivers to Yekaterinburg, that its inhabitants literally walked along it. The sand, which was used for laying the pavement, contained the smallest grains of gold. Such we alth did not leave the townspeople indifferent, and not only they began to earn their living by washing gold-bearing sand, but also people who came from other parts of the country. Thus began the Russian gold rush, thanks to which new mines were found and developed.
For example, two engineers, inspired by Brusnitsyn's discovery, discovered a large metal deposit on the Melkovka River in 1817. They planned to open a private enterprise for gold mining, but the Russian authorities did not allow this, having bought the site for a large fee. Now not only Berezovsky gold mines worked in the Urals. And other mines and mines became a source of we alth for Russia, which by this time had taken a leading position in this industry.
We alth of Siberia
Due to the fact that gold was found in the Urals, the attention of Russian industrialists and merchants turned to the bowels of Siberia. Large deposits were also discovered here, and since Yekaterinburg became the center of gold mining, and it had the most advanced chemical laboratory at that time, the we alth from the Siberian mines flowed into the city like a river.
The main burden for the extraction of precious metals and gems fell on the shoulders of the serfs, whose work was still hard and dangerous. Now they were driven to work not only in the Berezovsky gold mines, but also in others.deposits were developed at the expense of free slavery.
City Status
For a short time (from 1830 to 1861) Yekaterinburg was under martial law and was guarded by the army, subordinate to the commander in chief. The city was ruled by the head of mining enterprises, the minister of finance and the sovereign personally. Only the abolition of serfdom changed the hard labor conditions at the Berezovsky mines, but it also affected the development of the entire gold mining industry. People were unwilling to work for pennies in such conditions.
Unfortunately, the quickly ended gold rush had a bad effect on Yekaterinburg and its inhabitants. In developed countries, capital inflows enriched cities. Schools, roads, hospitals, churches were built with this money, trade developed. However, in Yekaterinburg, after most of the working people and businessmen left the city due to the closure of gold mines, only barracks and dilapidated houses remained.
Modern gold mining
Until the twenties of the XX century, some Berezovsky gold mines were still working, but later all the data on the extraction of the precious metal were classified. During the period of the seizure of valuables from the people and churches, the chemical laboratory was used to melt down the gold frames of icons and other ritual objects.
If in tsarist Russia the imperial mint was regularly supplied with gold by Berezovsky and other gold mines, then with the advent of Soviet power, the supply of precious metal practically ceased. They resumed after the end of World War II.war. The first complex of new mines was opened in 1951. It included:
- Southern mine, the shaft of which went underground for 416 meters.
- "Auxiliary" was deepened by 364 m.
- Two ventilation shafts.
Today, the equipment of the Berezovsky Rudnik LLC enterprise raises up to 150 thousand tons of ore per year, which gives the country up to 50 tons of gold. It was replenished with the Severnaya mine, opened in 1980, consisting of two workers and two ventilation shafts. This deposit is quite young, but during its development the country has already received 9 tons of gold.
Side effect of gold mining
When the scale of any production grows, it cannot but affect the environment. So, in the place where the Berezovsky mines were located, sand pits were formed. The locals call them the "Ural Sahara" and often use them for weekend picnics or open concerts.
Artificial reservoirs are not available for swimming, as their waters contain a lot of copper, but you can sunbathe near them. This is the footprint in nature left by the Berezovsky mines, which today remain major suppliers of gold to the Russian treasury.
