Mining history Golden Hill

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Deposit of tin, polymetallic and magnetit skarns Zlatý Kopec (Golden Hill) is located to the southeast of the village of the same name at the border with Saxony, about 5 km from Boží Dar.

Skarns are special rocks that are most often formed at the contact zone between intrusions of granitic magma bodies and carbonate sedimentary rocks such as limestone and dolostone. Mineralogically, they are characterised in particular by the presence of garnet-andradid, amphibole, andradit, pyroxen, chlorite and epidot. On Zlatý Kopec, skarns consist of two tabular bodies closed in chloritic-sericitic phyllites. The commercial component is the highest quality iron ore - magnetite, which is often associated with ores of zinc, copper and tin.

Thanks to its unique ores, the deposit Zlatý Kopec holds a special position between the mines in the Ore Mountains. The mining took place from the 16th century and apart from tin, iron, copper and silver were gained here, however in lesser extent. Since around 1860 even zinc ore was mined here.

Due to the aptly sloping terrain, the deposit was opened by the galleries. The galleries Kohlreuter, Mathesius, Tříkrálová and Johannes worked on the main skarn position, while the gallery Hugo and Hermann led to the deeper body called Hugo. Mining reached the depth of about 80 metres.

Last works were carried out in the second half of the 20th century when the geological survey reopened the old galleries and a series of boreholes were carried out. The area of such a verified deposit is 600 x 300 m and the average metal content is 0.94-1.26% of tin, 0.50-0.93% of zinc, 0.04-0.40% of copper and 13.95% of iron. Together with zinc, elevated levels of cadmium and indium can be found, which draw interest of modern prospectors.

In the western edge of the deposit, the exploration of uranium ore took place. Several mineshafts were drilled but without much success.