In 1926, the Presidium of the State Planning Committee of the USSR decided to organise the USSR potash industry in the USSR on the Solikamsk and adjacent fields.

The construction of Berezniki Potash Works began in 1930, later to become the First Mine Group of Uralkali (PU-1). After five years, construction was suspended due to financial constraints, but was renewed before World War Two.

In 1942, the Berezniki Potash Works mine began to produce white and technical salt. During the war, the USSR urgently needed carnallite to produce magnesium needed for aviation, and the carnallite ore reserves from the Verkhnekamskoye potassium and magnesium salt field allowed this. The company produced its first carnallite on May 1, 1944.

In 1949, construction of Berezniki Potash Works continued and in 1954 its first chemical enrichment plant created its first processed products.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the mine underwent large-scale upgrading, with manual labour replaced by automatic processes.

April 1962 saw the launch of a carnallite facility with a capacity of 300 tonnes of enriched carnallite a year, and in 1963, the company commissioned the first flotation enrichment plant in the USSR.

In 1964, the Council of National Economy of the RSFSR adopted a resolution on the establishment of a Uralkali production association in Berezniki, and the construction of the Second Potash Works began in Berezniki, with a capacity of 3.5 million tonnes.

Phase-one facilities of this, now currently, Mine 2 of Uralkali, PU-2, were commissioned in 1969.

In 1965, construction had started on the Third Potash Works (PU-3), with a capacity of 3.6 million tonnes, then the largest in the world, and this was brought into production in 1973. In 1986, the mine was flooded as a result of disruption of waterproof strata and the penetration of oversalt waters into mine workings.

To provide the PU-3 enrichment plant with raw materials, it was decided to supply potash ore from Mine 4 (PU-4), which was under construction. This required a railway connection between the two company mines, and production at the PU-3 enrichment plant resumed after a 10-month pause.

PU-4 is Russia’s newest potash mine group. It began production in 1986 and is now Uralkali's largest mine. The company’s short-term development plans are based on expanding this mine.
In October 2006, brines started seeping into the PU-1 mine, and though at first Uralkali attempted to save the mine, it had to give up due to an increase in brine flow. The State Technical Commission established to investigate the accident discovered it had been caused by a natural anomaly in the Verkhnekamskoye field structure, rather than technical violations or human causes. The circumstances of the accident were classified as “extraordinary and unavoidable.”

In 2004, Uralkali obtained a license to develop the reserves of the Ust-Yaivinsky area of the Verkhnekamskoye potassium salt field. In 2008, Uralkali’s Board of Directors made a decision to develope the Ust-Yaivinsky field by linking it to the company’s Mine 2, rather than through the creation of a new mine as originally envisaged. This alternative project would likely be less technically complex, would likely cost less and could likely be started earlier. Moreover, it would help ensure longer utilization of Mine 2.