Moss mine

An abandoned mine in Czech. We visited it during our trip in May 2018.

Between 1968 and 1992, when it was in operation, the mine produced approximately 2.7 million tonnes of rubtanine, representing about 936,000 tonnes of iron. For a period of time, it also produced copper and silver ores. Muscovite and garnets were mined for a short time after the metal ores had ceased to be mined. Mining finally ceased in 1997.

The total mine production was 2 672 000 tonnes of ruby ore with an average metallicity of 35.07%, equivalent to 937 000 tonnes of metallic iron. The average annual production of rubtan was around 110 000 tonnes. The main product of the mine was iron concentrate, used for pig iron production or as ballast for coal preparation plants. Since 1982, however, the accompanying chalcopyrite has also been used to produce a copper concentrate with a total content of 323 tonnes of copper and 807 kg of silver (752 kg of silver was recovered from the concentrate at Krompachy). In the last five years of operation, copper magnetite grit from the highest quality iron ore was taken by the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant Construction Company, which used it to produce heavy concrete.

In addition to the ores, gravel was also used and low-melting slag from the Chomutov Tube Rolling and Ironworks, which was used to produce weights, was processed here, as well as experimental iron from the ashes of the thermal power plants in Prunéřov and leachate from the Sereď nickel smelter.