The Schauinsland Pit (, or ''Erzkasten'' in the 19th century) was a

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

mine east of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. From the 19th century

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It 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 periodic tabl ...

was also mined. The mine operated from the 13th century until 1954. Since 1997 Schauinsland Pit has been a show mine.

Geology

The pit lies in the southern part of the Central

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, 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 th ...

, immediately south of the 1,284-metre-high peak of

Schauinsland The Schauinsland (literally "look-into-the-country"; near Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) is a mountain in the Black Forest with an elevation of above sea level. It is a popular destination for day trips. Due to the high amount of silver mining, ...

. There are numerous

lode In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fracture (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 th ...

s which descend very steeply from east to west and run largely parallel to the Upper Rhine Graben. The lodes are formed from

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

baryte Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate (Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...

and

carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, (), 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 group ...

and contain exploitable quantities of

zincblende Sphalerite 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-Valley type, and volcanogenic mas ...

and

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

. The host rocks are

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) 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. This rock is formed under p ...

es and

migmatite Migmatite is a composite rock (geology), rock found in medium and high-grade metamorphic environments, commonly within Precambrian craton, cratonic blocks. It consists of two or more constituents often layered repetitively: one layer is an old ...

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

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

Geology

Literature

See also

References

External links