It seems that there have been many controversies over opal mining. At the end of the 18th century, the monarch entrusted mining to the Viennese jeweller Joseph Rumpler. However, it was not long before the company Neumány took over the mines tenancy. However, this position did not long in the..Dozvedieť sa viac…
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The opal mine administration was separated from the Mining Directorate in Banská Štiavnica and assigned to the Salt Mine Administration in Solivar.
In 1789, Anton Ruprecht, professor of the Mining Academy in Banská Štiavnica, drew up a report on the status of opal deposits. The image of the existing mining area is still preserved in it, together with period instructions and plans. In his presence, the first experimental tunnel opened in the..Dozvedieť sa viac…
Opal mines were visited by Prof. Dr. František Slávik, an important Czech mineralogist, to assess the condition of mines and choose the next procedure.
During the reign of Joseph II., the company Neumány and Koletsch received exclusive mining rights.
After World War I, Austria-Hungary fell apart and opal mines became part of Czechoslovakia.
In 1775, the largest opal in the world was found at the bottom of the stream in Červenica, known as Harlequin. He weighed 607 grams and was rated 700,000 Dutch guilders. Today it is deposied in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Vienna.
Until 1911, the State had been running the opal mines. Although there were efforts to sell them, the candidates withdrew from the contract as a result of the outbreak of the World War I.
Anselmus de Boodt, personal physician of Emperor Rudolf II. and founder of modern mineralogy, describes in his work Gemmarum et Lapidum an old, overcast mine for precous opal, confirming the presence of mining in the Slánske vrchy mountains long before the first written mention of it.
In 1903, the opal grinding was terminated in Dubník.