“Why are those Wulfenites so extraordinary expensive?“ This thought accompanied me for several years whenever I tried to get a good specimen from Stefanie Mine at Bleiberg. I just could not understand that for the price of one Wulfenite you would be able to buy probably 10 good specimens from any other place. After 5 years of living at Bleiberg there was not even one Wulfenite crystal in my collection. At this time I got to know Herbert Stichau..

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 "Why are those Wulfenites so extraordinary expensive?" This thought accompanied me for several years whenever I tried to get a good specimen from Stefanie Mine at Bleiberg. I just could not understand that for the price of one Wulfenite you would be able to buy probably 10 good specimens from any other place. After 5 years of living at Bleiberg there was not even one Wulfenite crystal in my collection. At this time I got to know Herbert Stichauner who was an enthusiastic local mineral collector. We became friends and Herbert whose favourite mineral was Wulfenite opened my eyes. I began to understand and to differentiate. The more I was occupied with minerals the more fascinated I was by the wonderful Wulfenite crystals found in the Stefanie Mine. The first real good specimens that I saw came from the Konradi ore deposit on the 12th level in 1975. They had intense orange - brown color and were thick tabular crystals measuring up to 2,5cm on an edge. This thick plated habit is the kind of Wulfenites that most collectors associate with Wulfenites from this locality.

One smaller pocket from the Konradi ore deposit produced a couple of outstanding specimens with bright orange Wulfenites sitting on white Hydrozincite in 1975.

From 1976 to 1980 no great finds were reported except some huge Calcite crystals measuring up to 12cm at the Konradi ore deposit on the 12th level of Mine Stefanie and some nice Galena octahedrons on the 2nd level of Max Mine.

In 1981 the Johanni ore deposit on the 12th level of Mine Stefanie produced some one off Calcite specimens and a small single pocket with colorless Wulfenite crystals. Only 3 specimens of this very rare variety were rescued.

 

I was allowed by the Mine Directory to accompany a shift boss in order to inspect the Wulfenite pocket with the colorless Wulfenites hoping to find some more. But having only a few minutes at my disposal this wish did not come true.

The friendly shift boss then showed me several empty pockets on the 12th level. One looked still promising to me but there was water flowing out of it. I crawled into the wet pocket hearing the loud laughter of the shift boss behind me. With a screwdriver I began to prospect the walls of the emptied hole and I was lucky: A head sized pocket could be opened and then I was allowed to enjoy one of the most wonderful sights for a mineral collector. I still regret the fact that I had no camera with me. Unlike an alpine cleft here everything was clean and sparkling in bright yellow. When I gratefully handed out a good piece to my still laughing guide he forgot his mouth open. Although he had surely found lots of much better specimens in his long mining career he seemed quite surprised about the result of my efforts. The specimens I rescued belong to those in my collection that I would never give away.

Christian Auer has written the following interesting story about his experiences in the mines of Bad Bleiberg:

In summer of 1984 I was able to work in Bleiberg for 2 months as a young mining engineering student. A time that I never will forget!
Unfortunately I was sent to the Antoni shaft and not to the Rudolph as I would have prefered.

Every student started the same way, just filling up ore lorries. One lorry per shift. Well, soon after my fore worker saw my working skills and I was sent to a more sophisticated job. What he didn`t know I filled up that lorry so fast because I found outstanding fluorite xtls on baryte from a fresh blast while shoveling ;-) My next job was to work with rails (Vortrieb), which ment big cash for the miners at those days! The last month I was a helper of the surveyor, Mr.Mosser. Great collecting opportunities as he always went to fresh blasts! Once we saw a pocket, about half meter of size, filled with sphalerite and typical white baryte xls. I filled up my rucksack and took the best specimen in my hands. We had to check another place on that shift so I dropped my rucksack and covered the best specimen with it. When we came back it was gone! Mr.Mosser laughed and told me it simply was my fault. He told me when the miners at Stephanie found wulfenites they even went under the shower with the specimen in their hands!
On one of the last days I had the possibility to visit the famous Stephanie, together with the Oberhutmann Lamprecht. I think he liked me as when we went out he gave me a present, a lovely wulfenite which I still own with a lot of honour!
Those were the days, all long gone and history. Its worth telling here so they will not be forgotten.
(Christian Auer)

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Mine Stefanie - 13th Level

When working started at the ore deposits on the 13th level of Mine Stefanie in 1983 there was good hope that wonderful specimens could be found because face workers had already seen big Wulfenite crystals that had been washed out through drill holes. The following 5 years indeed should exceed all expectations. I will never forget the moment when I had my first look at a "Glanzwulfenit" as face workers used to say to most brilliant crystals. This was in 1983 when a good friend of mine collected the specimen which is displayed below at "Herbertschachtscholle" (Herbert - shaft - floe) on the 13th level of Mine Stefanie.

These most lustrous Wulfenites with the sharpest defined edges made the Mine Directory to let one man just concentrate on rescuing and selling minerals. It turned out to be a very good decision as a number of great finds were made by Günter Telesklav who very carefully rescued even most fragile Wulfenite crystals. But outstanding specimens still were very rare and hard to get. In my opinion the most striking ones were collected at "Herbertschachtscholle" in 1983 and 1986.

At the so called "Hundertmetervererzung" (Hundred - meter - ore deposit) very nice Calcite crystals, some with Galena inclusions, nice Hemimorphites and Wulfenites were found in 1984 and 1985.

 

 

Of course most mineral collectors could not wait to see what the Konradi ore deposit on the 13th level would reveal. After two disappointing years finally very good pockets were opened between 1985 and 1987. It started with a single spectacular specimen: On a 15cm measuring thin Hemimorphite floater some extraordinary beautiful zone colored Wulfenite crystals are decoratively placed.

Then several pockets containing a great variety of Wulfenite habits and colors were found. Most specimens had the paragenesis of Wulfenite and Hemimorphite. Strangely none of the Wulfenites from the 13th level Konradi ore deposit looked similar to those of the 12th level. The two most significant finds were the 3 meters high and 2 meters deep pocket with the green Wulfenites and the Hemimorphite pocket with crystals measuring up to 2,5cm.

 

 

A single find at the Konradi ore deposit remained the 2,5cm measuring Anglesite crystal. 

One of the very last recovered specimens at the Konradi ore deposit was this lovely one with almost reddish Wulfenite crystals in a beautiful paragenesis with Hemimorphite and Hydrozincite.

When in 1993 the mine had to be closed because of falling prizes of lead and zinc the village of Bad Bleiberg slowly began to change into a health resort using some of the tunnels for curing lung diseases and thermal water that had been discovered on the 12th level of Mine Rudolf in 1951 for curing rheumatism.

Mineral collectors are still searching successfully the numerous mine dumps for micro mounts. One of my colleagues even found the very rare mineral Leadhillite by this way. At the Old Stefanie Mine dump good Vanadinite specimen can be be collected. The Legatenwand is a well known locality for Descloizite which can be found quite easily if the collector is a good climber and not afraid of heights.

If visitors want to see nice local collections they just have to enter the popular inn Wirnsberger next the main road at Bleiberg - Kreuth. Its owner Jakob Wirnsberger is a collector himself who likes to give any information wanted.

The long mining tradition which reaches back to ancient times in the area of Bad Bleiberg is kept alive and honored by the club "Bergmännischer Kulturverein"http://www.bergbauverein-bad-bleiberg.at/.
There also is a museum with the possibility to visit part of the mines at the Antoni Shaft Building http://www.terra-mystica.at/.