For a long time Russia did not have its domestic gold, and took it as a reward in military campaigns. But he soon found that Russia, too, has its gold reserves. The first mine was discovered in Karelia, namely in Nadvoitsy.

Voitskii the mine is situated on the right Bank of the Lower Vyg, or rather at its source on the Peninsula, almost completely surrounded by water. Peninsula rises Voitskii mountain with a height of 14 meters; it consists of shale and dissected crevice on the East side length of 80 meters. It is for the cleft hosted quartz vein. It was possible to find: talc, pyrite, copper green and blue, ochre, native copper, mirrored spar and gold.

Taras Antonov, which adviceline, got a couple pieces of ore and submitted them to the office of the mining enterprises of Petrozavodsk in 1737, having discovered the place of extraction of ore. Five years later, namely in 1742, work began on the production of found veins of copper ore, and, absolutely not, it was assumed that there was also gold. Ore delivered to smelters of Olonetsky.

A couple of years knowledgeable and experienced people drew attention to the valuable metal in a vein, on November 21, 1744 Empress Elizabeth Petrovna was brought in an ore sample, which was composed of gold Voitsky mine. 15 December of the same year the Empress approved the new gold. So it was found the first gold mining in Russia. Until next year in the Urals were discovered Berezovskii Golden state crafts, founded in 1752.

On Voitskii mine was built Toscano-wash factory, located just below the river, near the waterfall on the left Bank. The factory had taleemi for crushing of ores and cradles for her washing. On the location of the mine was directed Andreyan Shamshev, which led to intensive study of ore. April 1, 1745 Elizabeth 12 samples were sent, containing the gold, after which the Empress decree on April 19, decided to appoint Mr. shamshev the head of mine. However, she pointed out that a necessary measure in the works is attentiveness during the search of employees who leave the mine. In addition, the mine was under constant supervision by the head and sealed by a seal.

Soon in 1756 Voitskii the mine was placed under the beginning of Nerchinsk of the expedition, which was then engaged in the extraction of precious metals and located in St. Petersburg. Gold mining here was especially hard, because most of it was washed by the waters of the river Vyg, and required a lot of effort in order to carry out the drainage, which employed 42 people.

After a few years of Nerchinsk expedition concluded that the loss of jobs at the mine, but the Senate disagreed, and the work continued. Later, in 1770, Catherine II issued a decree on the cessation of work on Voitskii mine. But the decree did not forbid to take mine in your content to private entrepreneurs. The mine was completely closed for lack of offers, and the workers were transferred to different plants Petrozavodsk. Nadvoitski farmers were instructed to carefully monitor the appearance of the buildings at the mine.

In 1772 the management of the mine was transferred to Alexander Gladkova, graduate of Moscow University. Hiring miners, Gladkov organized work pumping out water by means of manual work, and three months later, the desired result was achieved. Then the workers began to make headway in the underground workings. During 1773 produced 4 kg of gold. Success accompanied Gladkova thanks to the creation of equestrian dewatering machine, built in 1774. It was during this period produced the largest nuggets weighing from 400 grams to 1355 grams, which were sent to St. Petersburg.

From 1772 Toscano-wash factory was restored, but soon was stopped again. Over time we came to the conclusion that she lived already worked out. Again and again attempts were made by the extraction of gold, but the expected results is not instilled. In 1794, the Empress decided to completely halt the operation of the mine.

For all the time work in the Karelian mine was found 74 kg of gold, of which a large number of beautiful decorations.