The article is devoted to one of insufficiently explored issues in the history of the mining vocational education in Altai. The reorganization of the mining education of the Altai mining district is viewed through the prism of personnel reform of 1834. The particular emphasis is laid on the auditing of mining factories in the Altai district in 1835 by K.V. Chevkin and importance of this event for mining education reform. This article provides an overview of the «Act on Educational Institutions of the Altai Mining and Concentration Plants» of 1836. The authors consider the basic aspects of mining education in the period of the lease of the Altai mining district by the Ministry of Finance (1830–1855). The conclusions about the positive role of the changes are indicated; emerging problems of the local system of vocational education are specified. The period following the term of Ministry of Finance lease of the Altai mining district is evaluated as the inertial development of mining schools, the decline of Barnaul District Vocational College constantly increasing. The situation in the mining education before of the abolition of serfdom, is regarded as the high point in the local vocational education development, followed by a protracted crisis.