NATURE IN ACTION

The Mine and Quarry in Vlastějovice

The history of mining at the Fiolník Hill near the village of Vlastějovice has seen splendour as well as the downfall of the mining craft. A nobleman, Jindřich Firšic of Nabdín, received the right to extract the ore near Vlastějovice in 1540. At those times mainly open-cast quarrying technology was applied and the works were carried out near the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. Only later on and upon receiving more sophisticated tools the miners ventured underground. This happened when there was high demand for iron during the industrial revolution. Annually between 300 and 500 tons of iron were extracted from the underground mines in Vlastějovice in the course of the 19th century, with miners working in three pits up to 390 metres deep. The mining works carried out between 1945 and 1965 were centred around a large deposit in the Holý Vrch hill with the total of 440 kilotons of iron extracted from a span of ten stories underground. The high density of the rock allowed for a unique mining technology – via an open chamber from the corridors connecting individual floors. Then the ore was transported to the surface and later moved to the nearby train station to be taken to the ironworks in Kladno. The main deposit of ore ran out in 1965 and the mine operation was stopped. However, a quarry was open on Holý Vrch in 1967; it has been in operation ever since. The main rock of this area is skarn, with the largest deposits located on Holý Vrch and around the ruins of the Church of St. Mary Magdalena. Skarn is an ore iron with a high content of garnet and pyroxene and smaller amounts of delphinite and magnetite. The content of iron in the ore was around 50%. A common and typical sign of tactite from the Vlastějovice area is the content of pegmatite, with a typical content of fluorite, allanite and other minerals. Pegmatite creates irregular veins and usually contains fluorite and other interesting minerals.