Freiberg Mining Field

The Freiberg Mining Field ( or "Freiberger Bergbaurevier") is an ore field which, in its widest sense, is located on an ore deposit of precious and non-ferrous metals roughly 35 x 40 kilometres in area in the lower Eastern Ore Mountains in the German Free State of Saxony. The mining region is centred on Freiberg, but extends beyond that town's borough into the municipalities of "Halsbrücke", "Hilbersdorf", "Bobritzsch", "Weißenborn", "Oberschöna" and the boroughs of "Brand-Erbisdorf" and "Großschirma". Mining has been carried out here since the last third of the 12th century. In a narrower sense the name refers to the area covered by the Freiburg and Halsbrück mining territories ("Freiberger" and "Halsbrücker Grubenfelder"). The Brand Mining Field ("Brander Revier") immediately to the south comprises just the one mining territory, the "Brander Grubenfeld".
Mining in the Freiberg area began here in the 12th century. This includes a steadily developed water supply system for the benefit of the mining industry, the Revierwasserlaufanstalt Freiberg.
The most important mineral deposits are the ores "blue lead" (galena), "zincblende" (sphalerite), "fool's gold" (pyrite), "arsenical iron" (arsenopyrite), "argentiferous grey copper ore" (freibergite), "dark-red silver ores (Pyrargyrite), and "silver glance". The most important non-metallic materials are: "quartz", "calcareous spar" (calcite), "heavy spar" (baryte) and "fluorspar" (fluorite).
Within this mining region there were, historically, a large number of smelteries and, even today, there are still various active smelting works, for example, in .