Schauinsland Pit

The Schauinsland Pit (, or "Erzkasten" in the 19th century) was a silver and lead mine east of Freiburg im Breisgau. From the 19th century zinc was also mined. The mine operated from the 13th century until 1954. Since 1997 Schauinsland Pit has been a show mine.
Geology.
The pit lies in the southern part of the Central Black Forest, immediately south of the 1,284-metre-high peak of Schauinsland. There are numerous lodes which descend very steeply from east to west and run largely parallel to the Upper Rhine Graben. The lodes are formed from quartz, baryte and carbonate and contain exploitable quantities of zincblende and galena. The host rocks are gneisses and migmatites. The exploitable main lodes lie within an area 1.7 km wide and 3.4 km long around the summit of the Schauinsland. Mining has been carried out at up to 900 metres deep.