Magnitogorsk

Magnitogorsk, city, Chelyabinsk oblast (region), western Russia, on both banks of the Ural River. It was founded in 1929 to exploit the rich magnetite iron ore of Mt. Magnitnaya, just east of the city. The gigantic iron- and steelworks, several times enlarged, was one of the world’s largest in 1975, with a steel capacity of about 15,000,000 tons annually. By then local ores were nearing exhaustion, and ores are now secured largely from Rūdnyy in Kazakhstan and the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly of Kursk and Belgorod oblasti; coking coal is from Qaraghandy. There are also engineering, cement, glass, and light industries. The Ural is dammed to form two reservoirs within the city and although the steelworks and oldest part of the city lie on the left bank, most subsequent growth has been on the right bank, where air pollution is less. Magnitogorsk has teacher-training and mining-metallurgical institutes. Pop. (2006 est.) 413,208.