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(The pics are from Harjo Neutkens and Christian Hausen, the text is by Harjo)
In July 2004 my wife, daughter and I were on a holiday in Bramberg, Austria.
So I finally had a chance to visit the famous Emerald locality in the Habachtal.
After finding some Beryll-xls, Pyrit and Fuchsit on a rainy Wednesday near the "Alpenrose" guesthouse I set out on Thursday the 29th of July for a visit to the Bergwerk (Emerald mine) in the Leckbachrinne. I took the 7:30 taxi from Habach to Alpenrose (15 min.). About 20 m. from Alpenrose the trail to the Leckbachrinne starts (if you have difficulties finding it, just ask the people at Alpenrose) the first part will take you to the Sedl and will take you an hour (and a lot of sweat, we call it the Schweisshang, meaning sweatslope...).
With luck and perseverance you can find Emeralds in the Sedl but you'll have to dig deep to find a layer of sediments were nobody has looked before.
If you follow the path to the right of the Sedl you'll arive at a big Serpentine boulder (very obvious) after about an other hour, from here there are two ways to get to the Emeraldmine. On the left hand side the trail is very exposed to falling rocks and the (safety)rope near the end is only partially attached, so not very usefull. The best option is to take the trail on the right hand side (orographic left), from the serpentine rock you'll have to cross a small snowfield, from there the trail is visible. Just follow the trail but only follow it if you have high-alpine experience. The trail is very steep and there are two passages where you have to do some easy rockclimbing (for people without any experience thes passages can be very difficult as they are very exposed). The spot where you have to traverse some rock (there are some ledges to stand on, that's all...) is very exposed, if you look down from there you could get the shivers (many people do!) and if you slip from a foothold there you most likely won't live to tell...
When you finally reach the mine (40 min. from the serpentine rock, that makes the whole climb from Alpenrose to the mine about 2 hours and 40 min.) you can go right to the spot where the Steiners (Alois and his son Andy) wash out the Emeralds, or better you should go and look for Emeralds where the trail crosses the Leckbach stream (about 10 meters below the mine). On that spot the terrain is a little less steep and you can find a lot in the gravel that accumulates there in the water of the Leckbach (I found 14!! Emeralds and one Aquamarine and nice Akhtinolit there in only three and a halve hours!). There are several things to keep in mind when you are looking at the Bergwerk (mine). For most of the time you'll be standing in ice cold water, so bring waterproof boots, the host rock is Talc-schist and gets very slippery when wet (and if you fall the drop is very deep, once more, you won't live to tell...) and in the Leckbachrinne there are very frequent rockslides and
falling rocks. The Stollen (mines) themselves are off limits as they are privately owned and leased by the Steiners. Allways keep in mind that you are in a high-alpine environment, you won't be
the first person that has to be evaquated by helicopter... Be sure to visit the Steiners at Steinach (near Bramberg), they've got a fantastic collection of alpine minerals (of course a lot of Emeralds but also brilliant Titanit, Quarz, Fluorit, Milarit etc.etc. and the museum in Bramberg with its mineral collections.
The foto's are by me and by Christian Hausen, and on his website you can find more about the Emerald locality (and a lot more) just look on www.granat.at.
Also see:
granat.at,
mineralien-steiner.at,
mineralien-basel.ch,
tiscover.at/bramberg,
mineraliensammler.com (unten bildergalerien),
If you're searching for mineralogical articles on this locality (ExtraLapis 1, Smaragd, Grunes Feuer unterm Eis, ExtraLapis 21, Smaragde der Welt, Mineralien, Geologie und Smaragdbergbau im Habachtal/Pinzgau (Niedermeyer), lapis-1991-05-19-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal, mw-1992-03-33-oostenrijk-habachtal-axinit, mw-1992-03-53-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal-aschamalmit, mw-1992-05-46-oostenrijk-habachtal, mw-1994-04-46-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal-wiesbachrinne, mw-1996-03-17-oostenrijk-habachtal-milarit, mw-1996-05-13-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal,
lapis-2000-12-42-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal-leckbachscharte, lapis-2000-12-42-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal-nasenkopf, mw-2001-04-38-oostenrijk-habachtal,
lapis-2002-09-05-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal, lapis-2002-10-21-oostenrijk-habachtal-smaragd, mw-2003-03-41-oostenrijk-salzburg-habachtal-dunkelklamm etc etc), please contact us...
The reservations for the taxi to Alpenrose can be made at Taxi Innerhofer tel.06566/7451
Mindat.org on this location.
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