Kachkanar (Russian: Качкана́р), is the highest peak of the Central Ural in Sverdlovsk Oblast, located near the geographical Europe-Asia border.

The western slope of the mountain is steep, rocky and covered with boulder-like collapses of gabbro, pyroxenites and other rocks composing the massif.

[11][12] Investigators found vein pieces of ore on the mountain that deflected the compass and used them at the nearby Isovskiy gold mines to separate noble metals from the ferruginous host rock.

Having left very early in the morning, I had enough time, having examined the mountain and the iron mines along the Kaskanar, and having also collected considerable pieces of magnet, to return before evening.

[14] In 1849, a translation of the first volume of "The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural mountains" (Russian: «Геологическое описание Европейской России и хребта Уральского») was published Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, Philippe Édouard Poulletier de Verneuil and Alexander von Keyserling.

Summarising, Murchison noted that the Kachkanar ore was extremely dense, malleable and refractory and that its "extraction and processing are unusually burdensome for the miner and smelter".

[25] He followed Pallas in noting the iron-rich veins deflecting the compass arrow and the boulder-occupied space between the north and south summits.

[27] In the following years, the greatest contribution to the geological study of this area was made by Alexander Karpinsky (1869),[28][14] Krasnopolsky Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1890) and especially Vysotsky Nikolai Konstantinovich (1913), who published his monograph on it — "Deposits of platinum of the Isovsky and Nizhny Tagil district in the Urals" (Russian: Месторождения платины Исовского и Нижнетагильского района на Урале).

[11] Due to the low iron content, the ores were of little interest to industry, and detailed exploration was not carried out here for a long time.

There are also references in the literature to iron-rich Kachkanar ores used as magnets to separate gold and platinum from iron impurities.

In 1946-1953 the trust "Uralchermetrazvedka" (Russian: «Уралчерметразведка») carried out a detailed exploration of the Kachkanar group of iron ore deposits.

[35][33] Development of titanomagnetite ores of the Kachkanar group was started in 1957 on the initiative of Ural mining industry leaders M. M. Gorshnylekov, V. I. Dovgomys and I. M. Delikhov, and leading specialists of "Uralgiprorud" (Russian: «Уралгипроруд») (L. I. Tsymbalenko), "Uralmekhanobr" (Russian: «Уралмеханобр») (G. I. Sladkov) and geological department (K. E. Kozhevnikov, M. I. Aleshin).

[36] On the northeastern slope of the mountain, the Buddhist monastery Shedrub Ling was founded in 1995, where a small community carried out their practices.

[37] In 2006, Kachkanarsky Mining and Processing Combine received a licence to develop the Sobstvenno-Kachkanarskoye deposit, directly represented by mountain Kachkanar.

[38][39] At the end of March 2022, the buildings of the monastery were dismantled by Kachkanarsky Mining and Processing Combine, the religious structures were preserved.