Portrait of Nikita Demidov

People/magnate

Nikita Demidov

Nikita Demidov (1656–1725), magnate, from Russia. Linked to iron ore.

The lucky break

Began as a serf blacksmith, made his fortune making weapons and set up an iron foundry for the government.1,2,3

Legacy

Peter the Great ennobled him in 1720. The 1911 Britannica gives his birth as about 1665, while Wikidata gives 1656.1,2,3

Story cards

Where next

People

FamilyAkinfiy DemidovA serf blacksmith whose son built a Siberian mining empire.1

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed.: Demidov Wikisource (public domain source text)
  2. Wikidata item Q1971322
  3. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons

Pictures on this page: Nikita Demidov.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain); Portrait of Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov 1745.jpg, Unknown author (CC BY-SA 4.0).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

History of miningIron, steel and the Pilbara1856-2025Lessons from historyFrom discovery to production: the long road to a mine1922-2027The Kiruna iron ore mine drawn in 3D: the ore body dipping under the town, its levels and shafts, at the moment of the nightly blastData storyA day in the life of a mine3D · Kiruna, SwedenCurrent eventsThe TownKiruna, moved for the iron underneath

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Pictures: Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Elektrisk malmletning. Undersökningar på Billiton, 1920., Okänd / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).