90 km²
Land package size
Commodity Focus
The Northern Greywacke Zone defines the Schwaz-Brixlegg corridor, a roughly 20 kilometre Lower Devonian dolomite belt containing carbonate-hosted fahlore (tetrahedrite-tennantite) mineralization. Stratabound and discordant ore bodies sit within the Schwaz Dolomite, where select high-grade material locally carries up to approximately 0.5 weight percent silver (5,000 g/t), along with significant antimony and copper in fahlore. Late Alpine transtension along the Inn Valley Fault controlled the main hydrothermal event.
The Schwaz-Brixlegg district records over 3,500 years of mining activity, from Bronze Age extraction through a major revival at Schwaz in the 15th century. Production peaked between 1506 and 1545, when the Falkenstein mine ranked among the largest silver mines in the world and is recorded to have held roughly 300 kilometers of underground workings. By historical accounts, the district yielded an estimated half of the silver and copper produced across the Holy Roman Empire during the 16th century.