The Schauinsland Pit (german: Grube Schauinsland, or ''Erzkasten'' in the 19th century) was a
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
and
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
mine east of
Freiburg im Breisgau. From the 19th century
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
was also mined. The mine operated from the 13th century until 1954. Since 1997 Schauinsland Pit has been a
show mine
A mine, i.e. an industrial facility for the underground extraction of mineral commodities, has three operating phases: it may be open or running, or closed or it may be a working museum. Most mines are simply closed once they are no longer produc ...
.
Geology
The pit lies in the southern part of the Central
Black Forest
The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...
, immediately south of the 1,284-metre-high peak of
Schauinsland. There are numerous
lode
In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fissure (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock.
The current meaning (ore vein) dates from the 1 ...
s which descend very steeply from east to west and run largely parallel to the
Upper Rhine Graben
The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the so ...
. The lodes are formed from
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...
,
baryte and
carbonate
A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid (H2CO3), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word ''carbonate'' may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate ...
and contain exploitable quantities of
zincblende
Sphalerite (sometimes spelled sphaelerite) is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Va ...
and
galena. The host rocks are
gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...
es and
migmatite
Migmatite is a composite rock found in medium and high-grade metamorphic environments, commonly within Precambrian cratonic blocks. It consists of two or more constituents often layered repetitively: one layer is an older metamorphic rock th ...
s. The exploitable main lodes lie within an area 1.7 km wide and 3.4 km long around the summit of the Schauinsland. Mining has been carried out at up to 900 metres deep.
[Werner, Dennert, 2004, pp. 248 ff.]
Literature
* Wolfgang Werner, Volker Dennert: ''Lagerstätten und Bergbau im Schwarzwald.'' Published by the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining, Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2004, .
* Martin Straßburger: ''Bergbau im Schauinsland vom späten Mittelalter bis um 1800''. Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters, Jg. 31, 2003, pp. 212–213
* Martin Straßburger: ''Bergbau im Schauinsland vom späten Mittelalter bis um 1800''. Tagungsband zum 7. Internationalen Bergbauworkshop 2004 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, St. Andreasberg/Clausthal-Zellerfeld 2004, pp. 105–109
* Martin Straßburger: ''Bergbau im Schauinsland vom späten Mittelalter bis um 1800''. Schau-ins-Land, 126. Jahrheft, 2007, pp. 69–88
* Martin Straßburger: ''Montanarchäologie und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Bergbaus im Schauinsland vom 13. Jahrhundert bis um 1800''. Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie, Vol. 275, Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn, 2015,
*Martin Straßburger: ''Mining in the Schauinsland from the late Middle Ages until about 1800''. In Jacquo Silvertant (ed.), Echoes of a Mining Past. Yearbook of the Institute Europa Subterranea 2018, Kelmis/Gulpen 2018, Silvertant Erfgoedprojecten, , pp. 35–8
See also
*
List of show mines
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
Barbarastollen Schauinsland
References
External links
Website of the Schauinsland Visitors Mine
{{Show mines in the Black Forest
Show mines
Former mines in Germany
Tourist attractions in Freiburg im Breisgau
Black Forest
Buildings and structures in Freiburg im Breisgau