The most important historical gold mining district in Bohemia with tradition of gold mining over 2000 years.
The first era of mining was placer mining in nearby streams by the celtic inhabitants of the region. It was documented by archeological finds.
Placer mining was probably done again during the 10 - 12th century, than was started classical shaft mining from the 13th century. The peak of gold production from shaft mines was in the 13. - 14th century. The mining town Jílové was founded around 1250, it acquired the status of royal town in 1350. Czech king John of Bohemia (John the Blind of Luxembourg) started gold coinage (Prague Florins) from the Jílové gold in 1325. The mining was declining in the end of 14th century because of technical difficulties with achieved depth up to 400m and lack of gold.
The mining completely stopped during the Hussite wars in the 15th century. The medieval production was assessed to be around 65 to 90 kg of gold per year.
The third era of mining in the begining of 16th century was stopped by the Thirty years war in 1628. Then was region intensively mined in 17. -19th century, but total production was much lower than before (250 - 300kg of gold total in this era).
The state took over the mining from private companies in 1936 and operated the district till its closure in 1968. In this last era 420 000 tones of rock was mined with resulting gain of 1,13 tone of gold. The most important mines in the last era were - Pepř, Bohuliby - Stará jáma (old pit, St. Anne), Radlík and Rotlev.
Total gold production from Jílové is assessed to be around 7000 to 10000kg. In the area of 35 km2 is documented over 3000!! mining sites.
The deposit is situated in Jílové belt app. 25 km south of Prague. There are three types of gold mineralization in Jílové district:
- ore veins related to reverse faults up to 7km (Šlojířská, Tobolská and Kocourská are the most important) - 4-10g Au/t
- stockworks spatially related to Variscan dykes - 2,5-4g Au/t
- impregnation zones in albitic metagranite - low Au content
References
- Barvíř, Heinrich Lad. (1906): Betrachtungen über die Herkunft des Goldes bei Eule und einigen anderen Orten in Böhmen. Archiv für die naturwissenschaftliche Landesdurchforschung von Böhmen (Prag), Vol. XII, No. 1.
- Litochleb, J. and Sejkora, J. (2000): Der Goldbergbau von Jílové (Eule), Tschechische Republik. Lapis 25(4), 13-30 (in German).
- Pauliš P. Nejzajímavější mineralogická naleziště Čech II. Kuttna, Kutná Hora 2003.
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