Hiking in the Habach Valley

It is sometimes claimed that the Romans were already mining emeralds in the Habachtal valley. This cannot be proven beyond doubt and is rather unlikely. Nor have reports by a French scholar that an emerald from the Habachtal was set in the crown of Louis IX (1226–1270) been verified.

In a letter dated 1669, Princess Anna di Medici mentioned the word ‘smaragdus’ and requested a report on the emerald mines from the Danish scholar Niels Stensen (perhaps she was referring to the Habachtal). When the wealthy Senninger brewer’s wife Maria Rottmayr died in 1732, her estate included two gold rings set with emeralds from the Habachtal.

In 1797, ‘Hofkammerrath’ Caspar Melchior Schroll provided the first scientific description of the emerald deposits in the ‘Heubachthale’.

In 1821, the mineral dealer J. Frischholz described the emerald deposit area in the Habachtal in detail.

In 1829, mining director Mielichhofer made an emerald discovery in the Sedlalpe.

In 1859, Zepharovich published more precise details about the emerald deposit in the Mineralogical Lexicon of Austria. Consequently, the area was searched more thoroughly. Several fine stones were found.

In 1862, these promising discoveries prompted Samuel Goldschmidt to purchase the entire area. At an altitude of over 2,000 metres, he had the mountain lodge built, and several adits were driven into the ‘Smaragdpalfen’ below the Leckbachscharte. The yield is said to have been good. Following Goldschmidt’s death (1871), mining operations were temporarily suspended. In the years that followed, the English company Limited Forster took over the mine and employed 30 miners, who carried out the mining with considerable success.

In 1896, Emerald Mines Ltd. of London acquired ownership of the mines.

In 1913, operations had to be suspended due to high debts accumulated by a poor administrator. The municipality of Bramberg purchased the entire site relatively cheaply, as a considerable amount of municipal taxes was still outstanding.

In 1917, the sawmill owner Anton Hager from Traunstein was able to acquire the mine. However, economic difficulties (the First World War and the economic crisis) also forced him to sell the mine in 1927. After passing through the hands of the German-Austrian Gemstone Mining Company and the Swiss Society for Modern Mining, the mine eventually came into the possession of Justice Councillor Max Gaab from Munich.

In 1938, Austria was wiped off the map – the ownership situation at that time is unclear. After the war, Colonel Hans Zieger applied to the American occupying forces for the post of mine manager. He worked at the mine from 1945 to 1949 and cut the stones found there himself. Zieger was succeeded by Hubicky and the duo Caha-Eberl.

In 1963, the mine was officially transferred to the lawyer Karl Gaab. For many years, his supervisors at the mine and in the Goldschmidthütte were students from Munich.

In 1975, Sebastian Berger, together with Klaus Wenzel and Heinrich Hammerle, applied to Dr Gaab for the supervisory post. Disputes and mutual mistrust over the discovery of exceptionally large phenakites soon led to the three parting ways, and from 1976 Berger held sole supervision. He secured the tunnel entrances with iron doors, had a caravan transported by helicopter to the immediate vicinity of the mine, and drove many metres of tunnels into the mountain. The Berger era, which lasted around 10 years, proved fruitful both in terms of discoveries and scientific research.

In 1986, Berger, who had been suffering from mental health issues for years, tragically took his own life.

Alois Steiner and Alois Hofer, both mineral collectors from Bramberg, were appointed to the supervisory post from 1986 onwards. The Goldschmidt hut, which was already in a very poor state of repair, was refurbished at great expense and has since served once again as accommodation for the mine leaseholders. Mining in the mountain proved extremely difficult due to the highly unstable rock strata and inadequate support, and a great deal of time and energy had to be expended to secure the existing tunnels.

Since the early 1990s, the Steiner family (Alois Hofer having retired) has held the licence to mine in the emerald mine. Following the death of Karl Gaab (2000), his daughter, Mrs Ingrid von Klitzing, is the sole owner of the emerald mine.