The area of the Slansky Highlands between Presov and Kosice with the towns of Cervenica and Dubnik and the Mounts Great- and Small-Simonka (1092 m and 865 m), Colo (863 m) and Libanka (875 m) contains opal-bearing trachyte, andesite and tuffs. Opal occurs along the NE-SW faults which dip at 70°-80°, in the form of cavity fillings and pockets through the whole mass of these rocks (to 70m). One finds milky opal as well as hydrophane, hyalite, and precious opal (in the varieties harlequin opal, fire opal, black opal) as well as notable amounts of pyrite and cinnabar, which, for a time, were recovered.

It is difficult and almost impossible to determine the point of time when the first colourful fragments came to the attention of the early inhabitants of the country. It seems highly probable that before the beginning of our era opal was found in the sand and silica deposits of the rivers of the region. It can be supposed with some confidence that Dubnik precious opal, in the time of the Roman Empire in the first century of our era, when the Roman legions advanced to the Carpathians, was brought from there to Rome and later to oriental countries, where it was popular and greatly valued.

The production of precious opal from secondary deposits of the Cervenica-Dubnik area lasted, with breaks, certainly for several hundred years, until the type of area for the opal-bearing mother rock was understood so that major mining activity could begin.

In the 1870's, the geologist A. Gesell was commissioned by the Royal Hungarian Mountains Administration to investigate the old dumps and diggings; from this it seemed probable that the primary deposits at Dubnik were first mined in the 11th century. However, this mine was probably only worked temporarily in the upper layers and the alluvial deposits, depending on whether there was a market for the opal in the neighbouring countries.

The oldest district of this region, popularly known as "Pätdesiat dolki" ("fifty mines"), is on Mt Libanka and shows numerous traces of former mines: small diggings, adits, and dumps. Since the 18th century there had been no further investigations, and it is not clear whether the mine had served as a source of opal or mercury.

Indisputable evidence of the production of precious opal in Dubnik is first found in the 16th century. An important piece of evidence is the famous necklace of Queen Isabella, wife of the Hungarian king and Duke of Siebenbürgen, Johann Zapolsky, from the year 1540. It contains 16 cut opals of different size from Dubnik, and is to be seen in the National Museum in Budapest. A proof of the interest in jewellery with opals is illustrated in the document of 14.5.1597, in which Kaiser Rudolf II (1576-1612) granted to Adalbert Magnus of Breslau the right to search for opal in the whole of Hungary. It is the oldest surviving document in which opal is mentioned. A further report of 5.11.1602, an imperial decree of Rudolf II, directed Stephan Keczer, in his estate of Peklin, which also belonged in the Cervenica-Dubnik district, to prospect for and mine different metals, as well as opal. It is therefore evident that S. Keczer himself had not managed the mining activity.

E. Brown, from London, mentioned in his travel report that he saw in the Royal Mineralogical Cabinet in Vienna in 1673 several fine opals, including an uncut opal the size of a fist.

B. Tavernier d'Aubonne of Paris mentioned in 1676 in his description of his travels that he came across a mine in Hungary from which opal was being won; this did not occur elsewhere in the world. At the beginning of 1683 the owner of the Peklin estate, Andreas Keczer, was sentenced to death for high treason, and on 5.3.1683 was executed. His property, including all possessions and mines, and the opal mines of Dubnik, were confiscated and incorporated in the ownership of the State.

In the 18th century the precious opal mines were more active than in earlier times. The precious opal did not come under the general mining legislation, and also did not come under the administration of the mountain district authorities and it was considered as one of the rights of the landowners. So each person was required to pay a yearly fee of five gulden to the Royal Exchequer for Finance and Mining Administration in Vienna to dig and open up a mine.

Usually, on account of the scattered occurrence of opal in the mother rock, exploratory shafts had to be dug at first into the opal-bearing andesite on the mountain sides, in order to then drive a small adit in the direction of the probable cavities which might be filled with opal. If such a search were unsuccessful, it was simply left open. This explains the presence of the numerous and quite irregular distribution of old diggings with mine dumps on the slopes of the Cervenica-Dubnik district.

In the description of the Hungarian mines by V. Höffer (1710) it is quoted that opal occurs in the neighbourhood of Keczer-Peklin. F.E. Bruckmann mentions in his notable work on the mines in different countries, which appeared in Braunschweig in 1727, the precious opal of Dubnik, which was sent to Breslau for cutting. On the mineralogical map of Hungary of L.T. Marsigli (1741) the opal occurrence of P_kline is likewise recorded.

From 1750 Count Vecsey, the chairman of the Royal Administration in Kaschau, together with his secretary Stefan Szukowicz did some prospecting in Dubnik and produced precious opal. Also, the local inhabitants of the villages of Cervenica, Lucina and Zamutova likewise searched for opal in the summer months, and found it in natural outcrops and sold the raw stones to opal cutters in Kaschau.

To prevent the complete devastation of the opal-bearing country through arbitrary mining activity, the Royal Exchequer in Finance and Mountain Administration in Vienna made an agreement in the 1770's with the Royal Administration in Kaschau. This stated that no short term exploration agreements would be granted to the numerous individual applicants, but that the whole area should be leased to a general leaseholder. The first leasing agreement was concluded with Neumany and Kaletsch for an annual fee of 300 gulden for six years.

One of the finest Dubnik opals was found in 1775 in the River Olsanka, which rises on Mount Simonka. It is preserved in the Vienna Museum as a harlequin opal. It has the form of a thin wedge 12.5 cm long, 5.7 cm wide and 2 to 7 cm thick and weighs about 600 grams (3000 carats). A Dutch jeweller, who was commissioned to purchase it on behalf of the English court, offered 500,000 gulden for it. The first real mining on Mount Simonka began in 1778, after which further extraordinarily beautiful opals were found.

In the 1780's, Baron C.H. von Geispitzheim, a resident of Kaschau, tried to found a company for the mining of precious opal in Dubnik. He published his plans in a prospectus which appeared in Kaschau on 6.4.1788. The Royal Exchequer for Finance and Mining Administration in Vienna prohibited the founding of such a company, so that this plan could not come to fruition.

After it was debated in the Royal Exchequer in Vienna whether it was advantageous in the future for the State to mine opal from the Dubnik mines in its own right, Anton Rupprecht von Eggenburg, professor of chemistry, mineralogy and metallurgy at the Royal Mining Academy in Schemnitz (Banska Stiavnica) was commissioned to give an expert opinion. His thorough report, written in the same year on the basis of his personal observations gave a good overview of the status of the opal mines at that time. He recommended that the State take them over, which occurred in 1788. In the report, some proposed technical management measures would at once be implemented, and, according to the archives, in 1788 the first map of the Dubnik mines was prepared by the first surveyor of mines of the Oberbiberstollen union in Schemnitz, J. Möhling. It has unfortunately not survived. The total area of the mining fields was measured to be 392,736 square metres.

Thence began in Dubnik the actual production of precious opal. The construction and extension of the mines was under the direction of the Royal Exchequer in Vienna, which also supervised the marketing of the polished opal and of all of the expenses of the mining operations.

Then, it seemed, the systematic supervision of the opal mining venture in Dubnik and the related control of the production and delivery of the opal was found to create great difficulties for the Royal Exchequer in Vienna. At the end of the 18th century it was therefore decided to stop the State opal mining, and transfer to the leasehold system. The lease would be sold publicly to the highest bidder on the basis of a lease for a six year period. In 1797 the leasehold of the mines was given to the Vienna jeweller Josef Rumpler, who held the lease until 1809. His successor Mark Szentivanyi held the lease from 1809 for an annual payment of 2510 gulden by extending the area of the fields to 450,336 square metres; from 1817 to 1823 he paid an annual fee of 4500 gulden.

In the year 1823 the terms of the leasehold of the precious opal in Dubnik were laid down anew and published by the Royal Exchequer in Vienna. No leaseholders were found, however, so that the mines remained unworked for seven years and only the necessary maintenance work was carried out by the State.

After the well organised and publicised auction in 1830 a leasing contract for 15 years was concluded with Gabriel Fejervary. The annual rental was set at 1025 gulden, which was to be paid half yearly. G. Fejervary held to the contract punctiliously, and determined also the geological relationships of the opal occurrence. In the mining procedure he introduced a regular top and floor working which signified a definite advance. In the years 1837 to 1838, with the Freiberg mine surveyor Josef Walk he had new surveys and plans for the mines prepared.

In 1843 the State Finance Administration commissioned the mine surveyor Anton Mosel to prepare entirely new mine maps of the Dubnik opal mines; these were finished at the end of 1845. They survive and are to be found in the Central State Mountain Archives (Statny Ustredny Bansky archive) in Banska Stiavnica. The report of A. Mosel of 10.6.1845 indicates that 135 men were working at the mines.

In 1845 the Dubnik opal mines were leased to the jeweller Salomon Johann N. Goldschmiedt for the annual sum of 10,650 gulden. After his death in 1855 his widow Emilie D. Goldschmiedt took over the lease. A new contract was agreed to with her, for 15,000 gulden annually for 18 years from 1862. In 1873 the lease was transferred to the son, Louis A. Goldschmiedt, who kept it until 1880.

During this 35 year lease the Goldschmiedt family directed the winning of the precious opal in agreement with the Royal Control Commission for the minin in the trade. Later, he established his own lapidary in Dubnik, where at first experienced cutters from Vienna were employed, who then trained local workers.

The work force amounted to 130 to 150 people in summer, sometimes rising to 200, and fell to 40 to 60 people in winter. The annual production costs in the opal mines were somewhat high and amounted to about 70,000 to 80,000 gulden outside of the leasing fee. In spite of this the mining assured the Goldschmiedt family of a large annual income, estimated at several hundred thousand gulden.

S.J.N. Goldschmiedt was well known in the jewellery trade, and had excellent connections with all of the European precious stone exchanges which he skilfully and conscientiously applied to the promotion of wide publicity to exploit the colourful precious opal. Thus, the Dubnik opal, about the middle of the 19th century, was the most sought after and most expensive gemstone. The price per carat at that time amounted to about 25 to 30 gulden, while the larger, more splendid stones carried a much higher price per carat. Thus, for example, in 1848, S.J.N. Goldschmiedt received 40,000 gulden for a large opal from the then Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of England. A further stone, which, because of its wonderful red play of colour, was named "Brand von Troja" (Fire of Troy), belonged to the French Empress Josephine and had a value of 30,000 gulden. It was unfortunately lost when the empress had to leave Paris.

Incontestably the credit belonged to S.J.N. Goldschmeidt for making the Dubnik opal world famous, as he brought it onto the market in large quantities, as well as reactivating the mines.

In 1868 two large samples were found in Libanka-Grubenfeld; these were cut into the shape and size of hen's eggs and weighed 186 and 160 carats. The larger of these was presented to the Royal Mineralogical Collection in Vienna. The value of both stones together was estimated to be two million gulden.

After the success of the Austrian-Hungarian treaty of 1868, the Dubnik opal mines were placed under the finance ministry in Budapest, and after 1871 under the newly created mining directorate in Diosgyöri.

At the world exhibition in Vienna in 1873, E.D. Goldschmiedt exhibited a complete collection of all varieties of precious opal from Dubnik in the form of raw material, worked and cut stones, as well as jewellery and jewels ready for sale. These latter pieces of the exhibition alone were valued at over 500,000 gulden. One can say that at this time the price of opal had reached its highest point.

Because precious opal had become such a desirable and valuable stone, there began all over the world an intensive search for new deposits. The first non-European occurrence, in Zimapan, which was mainly fire opal, was known in Mexico since the beginning of the 19th century. Further Mexican occurrences in the provinces of Hidalgo and Queretaro were found after 1850, whereby large mines were established at Juan del Rio in 1870. In 1872 the occurrences of precious opal in Australia, in the States of Queensland and New South Wales, were discovered. The beautifully coloured pieces from Queensland were first exhibited to the public in 1873 at the world exhibition in Vienna. Together with the Mexican fire opal it came onto the market in large amounts, resulting in a significant drop in the price of the opal. The monopoly of the Dubnik product was broken and the economics of the opal mines became unfavourable, whilst the quality of the Dubnik stones could not approach that of the overseas material.

After the expiration of the lease with L.A. Goldschmiedt, it was taken over by the brothers Samuel and Adalbert Egger with Josef Bano, whose interest was taken over in 1886 by the Egger brothers, who took the lease for 18 years for an annual payment of 22,300 gulden.

The activity of the entire mining area was carried out at this time by roof and floor mining. There were four levels at 15m, 30m, 50m and 67m depth, which were connected by shafts. At the beginning of 1896 the main shaft of the Libanka mining area, which had been started in the first half of the 19th century, was sunk to the 67m deep level. The ore was taken along the drives in small hand carts, and was raised to the surface by windlass. Water was raised to the 30m level with two steam pumps, and from there was drained to the outside. The shift varied from 110-160 men, and there were 10-13 cutters working. Some 60,000 carats of raw opal were produced annually, from which 14,000 to 16,000 carats of cut opal were obtained.

After the expiry of the lease agreement with the Egger brothers, it was decided by the Finance Ministry in Budapest that the management of the Dubnik opal mines would be taken over by the State on 1/11/1896. A directorate for the mines was set up in Dubnik; this was managed by a director who was responsible to the Royal Hungarian Mines Department in Budapest. A mine manager oversaw the management of the mines, and in each mine there was an overseer for each 10-12 miners, and a foreman for each 3 to 4 overseers. In 1897 there were 138 men in the work force, and at the turn of the century, 112.

Towards the end of the 90's the State Mining administration had introduced further technical advances. Entire sections of the mines were equipped with rails with a gauge of 55 cm which made it possible to connect the workings with the main shaft in the Libanka mine fields. By 1900, black powder was replaced by dynamite for blasting.

A notable find of opal was made in 1903, comprising several 30 to 50 carat stones, as well as one of 279 and another of about 400 carats. The latter was 25 cm x 25 cm x 10-15 cm in size. Both larger stones were sent to the Geological Institute in Budapest.

The opal which was produced from the State opal mines but not sold was stored in the Royal Hungarian Central State Treasury in Budapest. The sale of the opal authorised by the State institution was not successful because of the amount of valuable opal being produced from areas outside of Europe. The amount of unsold smaller stones in 1901 was 20,847 8/16 ct in 146,801 pieces; 1903, 23,111 7/16 ct in 173,024 pieces; and in 1905, 29,604 ct in 209,151 pieces. These had a value of more than 650,000 kroner.

As the sale of precious opal decreased from year to year, the responsible authorities in Dubnik, Schemnitz and Budapest sought new ways to lease or sell the mines to a private person. An appropriate announcement appezechoslovak Republic on 28/10/1918. By a decision of the Ministry for Public Works of the Czechoslovak Republic on 9/10/1919, the opal mines in Dubnik would, on 1/1/20 be transferred from the Mining Directorate Banska Stivanica to the State Salt Works in Solnohrad. In 1920 the work force amounted to 24 miners, seven day labourers and three officials. In 1922 there was a total of 27 people.

As the Czechoslovak State had no intention of operating the Dubnik opal mines as its own monopoly, the mines were leased on 1/7/1922 to the French mining company Bittna-Belangenay for a period of 20 years. Mining closed down after only four months, on 5/11/1922, apparently because of lack of capital. The Czechoslovak Department of Mines then decided to close down the opal mines of Dubnik; this occurred on 22/11/1922, after the necessary arrangements had been made for dismantling and transportation.

In the ensuing years the mine buildings have gradually disappeared, as have the mine management buildings in Dubnik, so that at present only the buildings of the former lapidary remain. Further witness of this is the ruined portal of the Josef Hauptstollen Mundloch and the mine dumps of the partly collapsed old shafts from formerly well known opal mines in the neighbourhood of Cervenica-Dubnik.

In the compass of the protection of State monuments of technical buildings and installations, there was, in 1964, a major decision by the commission responsible for education and culture of the Slovakian National Council in Bratislava to declare the Dubnik opal mines to be a protected area. Thereupon the renovation of the stone portals of the Josef Hauptstollen Mundloch and the reconstruction of the collapsing parts of the shafts was undertaken, so that the numerous large areas of mines in the mountains of Libanka could be made accessible for research purposes.

To conclude:

From the remaining records, management reports and the protocol of usage of the Dubnik opal mines from the last decade of their workings, as well as the large number of records to be found in the State Central Archives, it is evident that the cessation of mining was in no way due to the exhaustion of the opal deposits, for vein fillings and pockets of precious opal also occur in deep horizontal levels; large discoveries could be made there. The cessation of the opal mining at Dubnik was justified solely by the strong overseas competition, which rendered the mining activity uneconomic. The real possibility therefore exists that, in the course of time this situation might change, and the production of opal once more become profitable. In the future, a resumption of mining activity at the Dubnik opal occurrence could once again be successful.

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