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Mines/Austria

Hallstatt salt mine

Hallstatt salt mine, Austria. Producing, underground, mining industrial salt since -1500.

Why Hallstatt salt mine is famous

ICOMOS reports large-scale salt production at Hallstatt back to the Middle Bronze Age, in the mid 2nd millennium BC. Underground mining began at the end of the Late Bronze Age using a shaft method taken from copper mining, paused briefly, and resumed in the 8th century BC with drift mining. The cemetery gave its name to the Hallstatt culture. Salt output continues, with brine piped to Ebersee and about sixty men employed when the file was written. Opening year -1500 is approximate (circa).1,2

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Hallstatt salt mine today

Mining in Austria

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Mines

InspiredGreat Orme MinesHallstatt's underground salt shafts used a method taken from copper mining.1An example ofWieliczka Salt MineHallstatt made salt in the Bronze Age. Wieliczka's salt mining ended only in 1996.1

Sources

  1. Hallstatt-Dachstein Salzkammergut cultural landscape, evaluation No 806 UNESCO World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS advisory body evaluation
  2. Wikidata item Q27952749 (Hallstatt - Salt mine) Wikidata (CC0)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Ore sorting by Tomra Sorting GmbH, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0).