Jílové gold mining district, Central Bohemian Region, Czech Republici

Regional Level Types
Jílové gold mining district	Mining District (Care and Maintenance)
Central Bohemian Region	Region
Czech Republic	Country

The most important historical gold mining district in Bohemia with a tradition of gold mining for over 2,000 years.

The first era of mining was placer mining in nearby streams by the Celtic inhabitants of the region. It was documented by archaeological finds.

Placer mining was probably done again during the 10th-12th century. In the 13th century, classical shaft mining started. The peak of gold production from shaft mines was in the 13th-14th century. The mining town of 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. Mining activities declined at the end of the 14th century because of technical difficulties with an achieved depth of up to 400m, problems with water, and lack of gold.
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 at the beginning of the 16th century was stopped by the Thirty Years' War in 1628. The region was again intensively mined in the 17th-19th century, but total production was much lower than before (250-300 kg of gold in this era).

The state took over the mining from private companies in 1936 and operated the district from 1939 until its closure in 1968. In this last era, 420,000 tonnes of rock were mined, resulting in 1,13 tonnes of gold. The most important mines in the last era were Pepř, Bohuliby (Nová jáma, Stará Jáma), Radlík, and Rotlev. The main water drainage adit is Václav adit from the year 1828.

Total gold production from Jílové is assessed to be around 7,000 to 10,000 kg. Over 3,000(!) mining sites are documented in the area of 35 km².

The deposit is situated in the Jílové belt, approximately 25 km south of Prague.

There are three types of gold mineralization in the Jílové district:

— ore veins related to reverse faults up to 7 km (Šlojířská, Tobolská, and Kocourská are the most important) – 4-10g Au/t;

— stock works spatially related to Variscan dykes – 2,5-4g Au/t; mainly in the Bohuliby area;

— impregnation zones in albitic metagranite — low Au content.

Note on the mineral list: “a lot of specimens which have been sold as buckhornite (buckhornite is confirmed from Jílové) or other rare tellurides from there are in fact tetradymites or tellubismuthites which are the most widespread tellurides there”, see https://www.mindat.org/mesg-424378.html

Geochronology

Mineralization age: Carboniferous : 339 ± 0.6 Ma to 338.6 ± 0.5 Ma

Important note: This table is based only on rock and mineral ages recorded on mindat.org for this locality and is not necessarily a complete representation of the geochronology, but does give an indication of possible mineralization events relevant to this locality. As more age information is added this table may expand in the future. A break in the table simply indicates a lack of data entered here, not necessarily a break in the geologic sequence. Grey background entries are from different, related, localities.

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Paleozoic
		Carboniferous
			Mississippian	ⓘ Muscovite (youngest age) 338.6 ± 0.5 Ma ⓘ Muscovite (oldest age) 339 ± 0.6 Ma

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References