The Rammelsberg is a mountain, 635 metres (2,083 ft) high, on the northern edge of the Harz range, south of the historic town of Goslar in the North German state of Lower Saxony.

His charger impatiently pawed the ground with its hooves whilst waiting for his master to return and so exposed a vein of silver ore.

At the bottom of the Devonian sea, two large massive sulfide lenses formed that were later caught up in the folding of rocks during the Carboniferous period and so lie overturned at an angle in the mountain.

[3] Ore mining started in the "Old Bed" or "Old Orebody" (Altes Lager), exposed on the surface by erosion, during the Bronze Age.

According to his Res gestae saxonicae, Emperor Otto the Great had silver ore deposits (Latin: venas argenti) opened and extracted.

The chief metals extracted from these ores included silver, lead, copper and zinc, on which the wealth of Goslar was based.

In 1552 – after decades of legal proceedings, feuds and skirmishing – Duke Henry V took the occasion of the city's weakened position upon the Schmalkaldic War and seized ownership of the mines from the citizens.

The architects were Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer, who designed other important industrial buildings (including the Zeche Zollverein in the Ruhr area, now also a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

After more than 1000 years during which almost 30 million tonnes of ore were extracted, the mine was finally closed by the Preussag company on 30 June 1988 as the mineral deposits had been largely exhausted.

A citizens' association argued forcefully against plans to demolish the surface installations and fill in the historic underground mine workings.

At the end of January 2010, after a news blackout of several months, the company announced that they would soon be drilling to a depth of 800 metres, where they suspected there would be rich mineral deposits.

In 2010 this World Heritage Site was expanded to include the Upper Harz Water Regale,[9] Walkenried Abbey and the historic Samson Pit.

Due to the German Wirtschaftswunder ("economic miracle") after the Second World War and sharply rising lead and zinc prices in 1950, investigations were undertaken into the deposits of banding ore (Banderz).

The removal of concentrates to the lead smelter at Oker and the Harlingerode zinc works was facilitated by a standard gauge railway line.

In 2008 Goslar's "Old Town" and the Rammelsberg Mine formed the motif for the annually issued 100 Euro gold coins from the series of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.