The Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant ( rus, Полевской медеплавильный завод, Polevskoj medeplavilnyj zavod), also known as Polevaya or Poleva, was one of the major

metallurgical Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

facilities located in

Polevskoy Polevskoy (russian: Полевско́й) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located southwest of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 60,000 (1974); 25,000 (1939). History The town is best known for its ...

, in

Sverdlovsk Oblast Sverdlovsk Oblast ( rus, Свердловская область, Sverdlovskaya oblast) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as S ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

History

It was established by the decree of

Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...

to process the local

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

deposits. The Polevskoy Plant was named after the local river Polevaya. The plant became the basis for the settlement which later grew into the town of Polevskoy. The place for a new plant was chosen by

Vasily Tatishchev Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev (russian: Васи́лий Ники́тич Тати́щев) (19 April 1686 – 15 July 1750) was a prominent Russian Imperial statesman, historian, philosopher, and ethnographer, best remembered as the author of the ...

Georg Wilhelm de Gennin Georg Wilhelm de Gennin (russian: Георг Вильгельм де Геннин) or Vilim Ivanovich de Gennin (russian: Вилим Иванович де Геннин) (11 October 1665 — 12 April 1750) was a German-born Russian military office ...

was in charge of the construction. The Plant became active in 1724. The copper was branded with the symbol of the Roman goddess

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

. The

Venus symbol A planet symbol (or ''planetary symbol'') is a graphical symbol used in astrology and astronomy to represent a classical planet (including the Sun and the Moon) or one of the modern planets. The symbols were also used in alchemy to represent the me ...

(♀), which represents copper as a chemical element, is now displayed in the Polevskoy town coat of arms. In 1757 the Polevskoy Plant was purchased by the Ural merchant

Alexei Turchaninov Alexei Fedorovich Turchaninov (russian: Алексей Фёдорович Турчанинов; born Alexei Fedorovich Vasilyev; 1704/1705 – March 21, 1787) was a business magnate in the Russian Empire, grandfather of Pavel and Dmitry Solom ...

along with the

Seversky Pipe Plant The Seversky Pipe Plant ( rus, Северский трубный завод), also known as Severna, was one of the major manufacturing plants located in Polevskoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast of Russia. It is one of the oldest Russian plants at the Ura ...

. Along with the Seversky and Sysertsky Plants, the Polevskoy Plant represented the Sysert Mining District. It was extremely profitable. Turchaninov's descendants managed the plant til 1912. For a long time the main ore supplier for the plant was the Gumyoshevsky mine, called "The Copper Mountain" by the local populace. However in the 19th century the Gumyoshevsky mine was exhausted. After it was shut down in 1870, the Polevskoy Copper Smelting Plant was reorganized to the iron plant. In this capacity the plant stayed active until 1923, but then shut down due to the lack of prospects.

References

{{coord missing, Sverdlovsk Oblast Buildings and structures in Sverdlovsk Oblast Economy of the Russian Empire Manufacturing plants in Russia 1724 establishments in the Russian Empire Industrial buildings completed in the 18th century Metallurgical facilities Companies established in 1724 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1923 1923 disestablishments in Russia