Ore Mountain Mining Region

From the first discovery of silver ore in 1168 in Christiansdorf in the territory of the present-day borough of Freiberg, which is part of the Freiberg Mining Field, mining was carried out uninterruptedly in the Ore Mountains until 1990. During that time, several different metals were extracted from the region. Silver was the first metal mined in the region (particularly around Freiberg), and the region was a world-leading producer of silver ore during the 14th through 16th centuries. On the Bohemian side of the mountains, Krupka grew into a prominent mining town, extracting silver, tin, and later iron, lead, copper, and mercury. After the superficial deposits of silver and tin began to decline in the 16th century, the region became famous as the world producer of cobalt, a status it maintained until the mid-18th century. Finally, anthracite and uranium were extracted in the 19th and 20th century, and were engines for the economic development of Saxony. Today deposits of indium, tungsten, tin and lithium are being investigated for their economic potential.