Igor Petrov
Doctor of Engineering Science,
The Moscow State Mining University

R

ussia has produced silver commercially since early XVIII. According to estimation made by the author totally by 1917 the Russian Empire had produced about 2560 tonnes of silver. With this amount broken down by regnal years, one can see that the highest silver production volume of 760 tonnes falls on the reign of Katherine the Second (fig. 1). Major Russian silver production centers were located mainly in the Altai and Nertchinsk areas.
Mines and Mills
Russian silver industry dates back to 1698 when the first silver-lead bearing ore deposit was discovered in Transbaikalia, which had just been added to the territory of the Russia Empire. Under 1704 decree the first state owned silver mill was build in the town of Nertchinsk followed by construction of six more state owned silver mills some of which kept on smelting silver until early XX. The number of silver-lead bearing deposits discovered in this area amounted to over 500.
To put these silver mills and mines into production the government relocated peasants from a number of Siberian administrative regions. Starting from 1770 the Nertchinsk area was a place of exile for criminals.
During XVIII Nertchinsk based silver mills and mines produced about 237 tonnes of silver at an average Ag grade of 0.07 %, with the recovery rate not exceeding 50% to 60% due to inefficiency of the silver smelting process applied. During the first half of XIX the mills produced by 169 tonnes of silver more. However, starting from the second half of the century their silver production started to decay. Partly it was due to reduction in local cheap labor resources as a result of assigning local people to the Cossack military estate later followed by liberation of the serfs.
In 1907 mining operations on the group of Nertchinsk deposits came to stall. All in all they had produced about 490 tonnes of silver.
Besides the Nertchinsk silver operationû there was Altai-based group of silver mills, which were of great importance for Russia as well. In 1742 first rich-in-silver ore was discovered in Altai. Initially, there were two silver mills operating in the area, namely: the Kolivan mill and the Barnaul mill. Originally owned by the Demidoffs, a famous family of Russian industrialists, in 1747 the mills went under control of His Imperial Majesty Office. By the end of XVIII four more silver mills were build in Altai.
By the 90-s of XVIII the Barnaul mill, the biggest one in the area, had thirty furnaces, three silver extraction hearths and a hearth for smelting silver bullions. Annually it smelted 7 to 7.5tonnes of silver.
There was a great number of silver bearing deposits mined in Alati at an average Ag grade of 0.05 to 0.08 %. The deposits were actually robbed: only high grade ore nests were mined while lower grade ones were used for filling.
From 1745 till 1800 Altai produced 840 tonnes of silver. In the next century (till the end of the 1860s) local mills reached their maximum capacity of 17 to 18 tonnes a year on average. A period from 1801 till 1860, when the region produced 1177 tonnes of silver, was followed by a gradual reduction in silver production.
In 1882 an ad-hoc committee, which was specifically formed to find means for development of mining operations in Altai, based on its findings arrived at a conclusion that most Alai ore deposits "were very promising". It was decided to close some local mills and to take a number of measures to boost production capacity of others. Unfortunately, all the attempts to design more efficient technologies failed. In 1911 Altai mills smelted the last 24 tonnes of silver to finish their 150 year history of silver production.
To be more precise, one Altai-based mine, the Ridders mine, was leased by a Russia-Asian mining corporation set up by English and French businessmen and put into production again. In 1914 a newly commissioned redressing plant started production of zinc and lead concentrates containing silver.
For some time silver-lead ore was also mined in Kirghiz steppes (now it is the central part of Kazakhstan). This business here reached its peak in the 1850s-1860s. It was high grade silver deposits of up to 0.3% which were mostly mined here. The local silver mining business was run by Stepan Popov, a famous Russian private miner, and produced up to 2.5-3 tonnes of silver annually. On this project the government helped Popov with loans and mining workers who were sent here from the Altai-based smelters. However, by 1907 due to constant lack of fuel and poor communication silver production here was ceased.
In early XX the bulk volume of silver-lead ore mining was attributed to the Northern Caucasia, where since 1853 Alagir Joint Stock Company had mined the Sadonsk deposit. Originally state –owned, in late XIX the mill which processed local ore was acquired by Alagir. It should be mentioned that initially, especially during the Crimean war, local ore was processed for lead as the main product. Then the emphasis was shifted to production of zinc. Silver grade of locally mined ore was up to 0.02%. The metal was smelted at a mill in the town of Vladikavkaz. In 1909-1914 Alagir` s pure silver production did not exceed 4 tonnes a year.
In Ural production of silver and lead was not so important, with the metals being mainly considered as by-products of the copper business. According mining experts of the day the key reasons for such low production and, consequently, low smelting of silver here were "a lack of communication routs", "a deficit of fuel or limited opportunities to get it" as well as "a shortage of the disposable capital and partly entrepreneurial spirit". Electrolytic copper production started here in 1909 revealed an opportunity to extract silver from copper refining tailings. In 1912 Ural increased its silver production up to 10.7 tonnes, with the silver being mainly extracted from tailings of the Kishtimsk mill.
Besides this silver was periodically produced in the course of copper refining in 1912–1914 at the Moscow Electrolytic Plant and in 1915 at the Allaverdsk copper smelter in Armenia.
It is also worth mentioning that then significant volumes of silver were extracted from smelting bullion gold at numerous gold smelting laboratories in Ekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Tomsk etc. and in the course of chemical extraction of gold at Ural –based mills. In 1911-1913 the volume of this silver production consistently remained at a level of 6.8 to 7.4 tonnes.
In 1911-1916 silver was refined mainly at the St. Petersburg Mint, which annually produced 3 to 5 tonnes of pure silver.
From Coins to Jewelry
From 1884 till 1913 silver consumption in the Russian Empire increased tenfold from 33 tonnes up to 358 tonnes a year. The total silver consumption over that period amounted to 5,410. tonnes that was twice more than the volume of silver ever produced in the history of silver production.

It is interesting to mention acute fluctuation in volumes of trading with external markets. Thus, maximum silver import of 1235 tonnes to Russia was marked in 1905 (for the same period silver export did not exceed 938 tonnes) while in 1910 this figure did not exceed 405 tonnes. Silver import and export volumes were mainly determined by the financial operations carried out at the moment. In any case in 1911-1913 Russia` s own silver production met only 5% of the domestic demand for silver while just in 1884 it was as much as 38%.
In 1884-1913 the bulk volume of silver (about 94% according to the author` s estimation) was used for minting, mainly Ruble coins. Starting from 1718 such coins were issued annually. During XVIII silver content in Ruble coins gradually went down to reach 18g in the 1860s, at which level it remained unchanged until 1915 when silver Ruble coin minting was ceased in Russia.
Since 1842 big denomination silver coins were struck at the St. Petersburg and Warsaw mints. In 1864 the Warsaw mint was closed so that the St. Petersburg remained the only one which kept on minting silver coins. Over the whole period of its history the St Petersburg Mint struck about 350 mln. of silver coins, with more than 6300 tonnes of silver being totally used.
The 1912 List of Plants and Factories of the Russian Empire reads a notion that the St. Petersburg Mint` s business also included refinery of precious metals, examination of false coins, sampling of precious metals and coins, minting of coins, medals, stamps, pins and stamping dies etc. In 1909 it employed 466 workers.
The First World War which broke out in 1914 followed by aggravation of the economic situation put an end to the real existence of the Russian Empire silver coin mint system. The last set of silver Rubles (600 coins) was minted in 1915. It is also known that a limited number of small denomination silver coins was struck in 1917 though they never were put in circulation. During the Second World War both gold coins and silver ones – firstly those of big denomination then small change – vanished into thin air.
In Russia silver was traditionally used for manufacturing different pieces of jewelry and handicrafts. Manufacturing plants involved in this business were mainly located in big cities. A number of them were set up in Moscow. Relatively big companies manufacturing silver items with turnover exceeding 500 thousand Rubles were as follows:

– The Joseph Phrange Manufacture of cupronickel and silver items (Warsaw);
– The I.P. Khlebnikov, Sons& Co Manufacture of silver, gold and jewelry items (Moscow);
– The Faberger manufacture of silver and gold items (Moscow);
– The Marshak Manufacture of silver and gold items (Kiev);
– The Gempel Brothers Manufacture of silver items (Warsaw).



Continuation of the Story
Finally, a couple of words should be said about "the bridges from the past". By some estimation during the several years preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union silver production here reached 900 tonnes a year, including 600 tonnes of silver produced from primary raw materials.

Though no official statistics on silver production in Russia is published now, western analysts estimate it at 630 tonnes a year. Based on the reports of silver producers themselves this industry is currently led by MNPO Polymetal which produced about 413 tonnes of silver in 2003. In 2002 the Kishtimsk Electrolytic Copper Plant produced about 88 tonnes of silver from electrowinning tailings. This is at least 8 to 9 times more than the silver production level reached by the plant in 1911–1912 under Mr. Urkvarte, the then director of the Kishtimsk Plant.

After a long break Alagir, currently known as the Electrotsinkovi Plant, regained the Sadonsk mine group. For the present the plant produces no commodity silver, just silver concentrate (the Electritsink Plant is a part of the Ural Mining & Metallurgical Company which produces LBMA certified silver bars– editorial comment).

Silver bearing ore mining has been resumed in Altai. It is expected that Transbaikalia will soon reanimate its silver production as well. With the local silver production ceased in early XX, these regions resumed the business in the 1940s to cease it again in the mid 1990s: shutdown of the Nertchinsk Mining and Processing Complex in 1994 was closed, then in 1995 the Altai Mining and Processing Complex was phased out. After a long break in late 2004 the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company resumed mining at the abandoned Rubtsovsk deposit in Altai. It is expected that in 2005 Novoshirokinskoie polymetallic deposit will start production in the Chita area, Eastern Siberia.

All the things come full circle.

Fig. 1. The Russian Empire Silver Production Break Down by Regnal Years, in tonnes
800
700
600
00
400
300
200
100
0

Peter the Great
Katherine the First Åêàòåðèíà I + Peter the Second
Anna Ioanovna
Elizabeth the First
Peter the Third
Katharine the Second
Pavel the First
Alexander the First
Nikolai the First
Alexander the Second
Alexander the Third
Nikolai the Second


Fig.2. Russian Silver Production from Silver-Lead Ores and Copper Refinery (1887-1926), in tonnesò

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1887 1889 1891 1895 1897 1899 1901 1903 1905 1907 1911 1913 1915 1917 1919 1921 1923

– from silver-lead ore
– from refinery