Hiking in mineral-rich Habachtal

It is sometimes claimed that even the ancient Romans once panned for emeralds in the Habachtal. This cannot be completely proven and would seem rather improbable. Reports from a French scientist, claiming that a Habachtal emerald was actually in the crown of Louis IX (1226 – 1270), cannot be verified.

It is unlikely that the locals deliberately went about collecting emeralds, but rather that they simply picked them up because of their beauty, if they happened to find any on the earth’s surface. 

In a 1669 letter, Princess Anna di Medici used the word “smaragdus” and was expecting a report from Danish scholar, Niels Stensen, about the emerald mines (who knows, perhaps it was referring to Habachtal?). When wealthy member of the Senningerbräu brewing dynasty, Maria Rottmayr, passed away in 1732, her estate included two gold rings with emeralds from the Habachtal .

1797 Schroll provides the first scientific description of emerald deposits in the “Heubachthale”. 

1821 Mineral dealer J. Frischholz gives a full description of the area where emeralds finds are made in Habachtal. 

1829 Mine director Mielichhofer makes an emerald find in the Sedlalpe. 

1859 Zepharovich publishes in the Austrian Mineralogical Lexicon more precise details about the emerald deposits. From that point on, the area is more closely searched: several beautiful stones are found. 

1862 Samuel Goldschmidt is prompted by the many promising finds to purchase the entire area. At over 2,000 m above sea level, he has a mine building constructed, whilst beneath the Legbachscharte, several shafts are pushed into the “Smaragdpalfen”. The yield is said to have been good. After Goldschmidt’s death (1871), mining is temporarily halted. In the years following, English company Limited Forster takes over the mine, employing 30 miners who run the mine with great success. 

1896 Emerald Mines Ltd. of London acquires ownership of the mine. 

1913 The business has to cease operations due to high debt accumulated because of poor management. The community of Bramberg buys the entire area relatively inexpensively, since a substantial amount of back taxes are also owed to the town. 

1917 A sawmill owner from Traunstein, Anton Hager, purchases the mine. But he, too, is forced by adverse economic circumstances (WWI – economic crisis) to sell the mine in 1927. After the Austro-German Gem Mining Company and the Swiss Society for Modern Mining, the mine finally passes into the hands of Max Gaab, a King’s Council from Munich. 

1938 Austria is erased from the map – ownership rights become blurred during this period. After the war, Colonel Hans Zieger is granted the post of Administrator of Mines under the American occupation forces. He is actively involved with the mine from 1945 to 1949 and even grinds down the rocks himself. Zieger is followed by Hubicky and the Caha-Eberl duo. 

1963 The mine is officially restored to lawyer Karl Gaab. His supervisory staff at the mine and at the Goldschmidt hut had been students from Munich for many years. 

1975 Sebastian Berger, together with Klaus Wenzel and Heinrich Hammerle, apply to Dr. Gaab for the supervisory posts. Disputes and mutual distrust revolving around the find of extraordinarily large phenakites soon lead to the three parting ways, with Berger retaining sole supervisory controls from 1976 on. He secures the gallery entrances with iron doors, has a trailer helicoptered in close to the mine, and drives the galleries many meters further into the mountain. The some 10-year Berger era has proven, both with regards to finds and scientific research, very productive. 

1986 Berger, who had been suffering from psychological problems for years, tragically commits suicide. Alois Steiner and Alois Hofer, both mineral collectors from Bramberg, are given the supervisory roles from 1986 on. The Goldschmidt Hut, which was in very poor condition, is restored with painstaking effort and has since served as accommodation for the mine tenants. Mining inside the mountain, due to very unstable rock strata and inadequate supports, proved very difficult, with much time and energy having to be expended in order to secure the existing mine gallery. Since the beginning of the 90’s, the Steiner family (Alois Hofer ended his involvement) has possessed the rights to dig in the emerald mine. After the death of Karl Gaab (2000), his daughter, Ingrid von Klitzing, has been sole owner of the emerald mine