Cu deposit (Schönberg), Flatschach, Spielberg, Murtal District, Styria, Austriai

Regional Level Types
Cu deposit (Schönberg)	Deposit
Flatschach	Municipality (Former)
Spielberg	City
Murtal District	District
Styria	State
Austria	Country

Copper mining area with 4 districts (Reviere): Schlossgraben district (Gröbner, 2000), Brunngraben district, Weissenbach (= Flatschachgraben) district and Adlitz (= Adlitzgraben) district, as well as Tremmelberg further east (where numerous gold mines on the western slopes were worked as far back as 1400 AD, and which probably represents a continuation of the veins at Adlitz).
Mineralization is in several discordant calcite-dolomite-siderite veins (8 veins including 3 major ones) and extends for ca. 2 km in SW-NE direction. The major ore mineral is chalcopyrite.

The northern veins are dominated by chalcopyrite, the southern ones by arsenopyrite. The chalcopyrite content is reported to increase with depth.

The gold mining on the Tremmelberg came to an end around 1670 because of a religious upheaval. The miners (Saxons) were protestants. The owner, however, the monastery of Admont, was catholic and evicted all miners.
The only visible remain of this time is the canal dug by the Saxons which leads the river Ingering from Holzbrücken to Knittelfeld.
In 1716 the abbey of Seckau started a new mining operation by having first 2 adits driven in the Adlitzgraben, others followed. Till 1746 no less than 32 adits had been driven. The longest were the Schönberg adit with over 1’000 m and the Fortuna adit with 900 m. Ingress of water was a problem in many adits.
The main product was now Cu with some Ag and Au.
It was a big economic success since the production cost were only a 1/3 of the sales price (200 % profit).
During the secularization from about 1780 to 1800 the monks lost their worldly (political) power and some of their worldly possessions (by far not all, the monastery Admont still holds large tracts of lands and the mineral rights).
The mining enterprise had then different owners until its closure in 1870. In 1906 the Urbani adit was worked again for a short time only.
In total approx. 1’000 metric tons of Cu, approx. 1.5 metric tons of Ag and a few kg of Au were produced.

In 2012 many adits were caved in, some were flooded, a few were still accessible. The Fuchs adit and its dump were still accessible in 2012 which is of interest to mineral collectors.

Located approx. N of Flatschach and NW of Knittelfeld. The centre of this mining area is at approx. N47.23891 E14.74309 (~ Paulusstollen).

Note: Schönberg is a name for the mining area which is only used by a prospecting company (Noricum Gold Limited) that did prospecting work on gold in 2012. The project later apparently flopped.

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References