Mining village Goldhausen

As early as the 11th century, people were panning for the coveted precious metal on the slopes of the Eisenberg. Underground mining began no later than the 14th century, reaching its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries. During the approximately 500 years of operation, miners excavated more than 48 tunnels and 45 shafts totaling 20 km in length. The amount of gold extracted is estimated at around 1,2 tons. Due to the depletion of the deposits, gold mining came to an end before the Thirty Years' War. Since 30, the "Unterer Tiefer-Tal-Stollen" visitor mine has offered insights into the Eisenberg and its geology and mining history.

Geology:
The geological history of the Eisenberg began about 360 million years ago during the Devonian period. Over a period of about 40 million years, sediments were deposited in a sea basin only a few hundred meters deep. Gold was dissolved in low concentrations throughout the seawater. Pyrite (sulfur pyrite) formed in the dark marine mud, which later became black shales, and bound the gold. With the onset of the Rhenish Slate Mountains' orogeny in the Carboniferous, the sedimentary layers were folded into the Medebach-Goldhausen Anticline, a geological fold structure between the Waldeck Mulde in the northwest and the Wittgenstein Mulde in the southeast. Upper Devonian rocks are exposed at the core of the anticline, above which lie Lower Carboniferous alum shales, lydites (black-gray, splintery siliceous shales), siliceous limestones, and, on the flanks of the anticline, foliated clay shales and greywackes of the Lower Carboniferous. The primary gold deposits in the Eisenberg are primarily associated with tectonic fault zones created by the folding of rock layers in the mountains. Hot waters transported gold and other metals (lead, copper, selenium) from the black shales to neighboring fault zones through these zones. The most gold-rich tectonic faults (“Ruschelzonen”) in siliceous limestone and alum shale proved to be the most gold-rich. They contain gold in the form of small platelets, needles, and crushed octahedral needles, with concentrations up to 100 g per ton of rock. The north-south trending “Mittagsklüfte” (midday clefts) and younger, southeast-facing short thrust faults also contain gold. Even more solid siliceous limestone beds contain gold in millimeter-thin fissures filled with calcite.

In addition to these relatively rich hard-rock deposits, gold is also found in younger unconsolidated sediments. Here, it is predominantly formed as placer gold, i.e., gold grains or flakes released, transported, and redeposited by weathering.

Mine tours:
from mid-April to the end of October, details and registration at www.goldspur-eisenberg.de

The Gold theme trail "Goldspur Eisenberg" with two circular trails is freely accessible at any time. An information brochure is available in the Korbach-Information or (during the mine tours) in the Goldhausen mine house.