The history of metallurgy in the Urals stands out to historians and economists as a separate stage in the history of Russian industry and covers the period from the 4th millennium BC to the present day. The emergence of the mining district is connected with the history of Ural metallurgy. The geography of the Ural metallurgy covers the territories of modern Perm Krai, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Oblast and Orenburg Oblast.
In the 18th century, periods of formation and development of industrial metallurgical centers stand out in Urals metallurgy, for example, the rapid construction and economic growth of more than two hundred metallurgy factories during the 18th to the first half of the 19th centuries until the abolition of serfdom on February 19, 1861 in the Russian Empire, which led to reductions in the labor force. There was also a sharp drop in production rates in the early 1900s but that was followed by recovery and growth by 1913. In the 20th century, after recovering from the decline caused by the Russian Revolution(s): 1905, February 1917, and October 1917 and the Russian Civil War (November 1917 - June 1923), Ural metallurgy had a strategic impact on ensuring the defense of the USSR on the Eastern Front of World War II which is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. In the 21st century, the development of metallurgical enterprises in the Urals is associated with the formation of vertically integrated full cycle companies.
The main milestones in the development of metal production technologies in the Urals include the transition from bloomery or the old iron production method to the Kontuazsky forge (for remelting heavy scrap) and the puddling method in the second half of the 19th century. Later, there was the development of hot blast at the end of the 19th century. Further, there was a transition to coke fuel and the introduction of steam engines. Finally, there was the development of open-hearth and Bessemer methods of steel production at the beginning of the 20th century.