Minerals

In the course of a billion years of the earth’s history, numerous deposits have been formed in the Ore Mountains, containing more than 20 metals and significant resources of non-metallic raw materials. They have been exploited for 800 years.
Mining underwent several phases of development with the ups and downs of the economic cycle. As mining proceeded to greater depths and into unknown areas, advanced knowledge was required for the purposeful search.
The centre of mineralogical and reservoir exploration sciences was Freiberg, where the Mining Academy was founded in 1765. People from Zinnwald, Schneeberg, Seiffen, Ehrenfriedersdorf and other mining locations were also involved in research.

Professors Charpentier and Werner from Freiberg were the first to give systematic descriptions of the deposits in the Ore Mountains.
Carl Hermann Müller, the greatest authority on deposits in the Ore Mountains, made detailed observations upon which he based his classifications of the ore veins into an older and a younger group.

The most important mineral locations and mines are:

• Annaberg -Buchholz: “M. Röhling” (silver), “Uranus” (copper pyrite)

• near Annaberg, Buchholz, Frohnau, Kleinrückerswalde and Cunersdorf
  (fluorite, barite, annabergite, cobalt bloom, blue lead, pyrite, Co-Ni-arsenide, massive arsenic)

• Ehrenfriedersdorf: “Sauberg” mine (cassiterite, wolframite, arsenopyrite, quartz, apatite, fluorite, barite, mica, silver ore and others)

• Geyer, Greifenbach valley: (amethyst)

• Wiesenbad, Seidelgrund: (amethyst)

• Bärenstein, Niederschlag: (fluorite, barite)

• Hammerunterwiesenthal:
  (zeolites [natrolite, thomsonite], calcite in phonolite)

• Crottendorf, Großer Hemmberg: (garnet)

• Marienberg: "Drei Brüder Höhe" (copper pyrite), "Gelobtland" (amethyst), "Himmelreich" (heavy spar), "Kalkwerk" (limestone), "Vater Abraham" (silver)

• Pobershau: "Tiefer Molchner Stolln" (tin)

• Zöblitz: serpentine