Opened in 2013, the university is operated by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company and serves as a higher educational institution for industry workers.

The concept for UMMC originated in the early 2000s when the Ural Government decided to expand the region's education infrastructure, namely by building a new university outside the major industrial city of Yekaterinburg.

During the following years, changes in Russian federal law allowed for closer partnerships between public educational institutions and business groups, including the ability for businesses to directly fund the opening of new departments in state-run educational institutions while also allowing universities to open departments at industrial enterprises.

[1] In addition, Kozitsyn noted that his company had agreed to fund the opening of a new department of metallurgy at Ural Federal University.

[4] UMMC continued to expand, opening a research facility in 2014 and in 2016 announced it was allowing for graduates of secondary and technical schools to enroll.