(Mine d'argent, Zimmerbach, Vallée de la Fecht (Vallée de Munster), Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France)
Ancient silver mine, started in the late 15th century and abandoned a few decades later. In 1902, the deposit was unsuccesfully re-worked for a short period of time by a german mining company. There are no traces of the workings left, but dump material can still be found in the vineyards around the village.
The hydrothermally formed vein is hosted by granite-gneiss and consists of quartz, ankerite, siderite and baryte. The primary ores were chalcopyrite and argentiferous tennantite. The geology of the deposit is largely unknown, but the vein likely represents a fracture filling in the Ammerschwihr-Soultzbach fault zone.
Refs.:
- POCK, R. (1993): Sekundärmineralien des Erzganges bei Zimmerbach in den Vogesen (Frankreich). Aufschluss 44, 313-328. (in German)
- POCK, R. (1995): Neufunde aus dem Erzgang bei Zimmerbach in den Vogesen (Frankreich). Aufschluss 46, 263-270. (in German)
- J.-L. Hohl: "Minéraux et Mines du Massif Vosgien", Editions du Rhin (Mulhouse), 1994 (in French)
