• national historic site
  • national important culture
  • National Modernization Industrial Heritage
  • National Important Cultural Landscape
  • About 70 minutes
  • Runs from April to November
  • Reservation required

Guided industrial heritage tour

rare mine in the world where gold and silver ore has been mined and produced for 388 years since its opening in 1601.

In the Edo period, the Sado magistrate's office was established, and koban was also manufactured. A large mining town, said to have 50,000 people at the time, was formed and prospered.

On this tour, a guide will take you through a series of industrial heritage sites related to gold and silver production (mining, crushing, processing, smelting, harbors) and a townscape that still retains the atmosphere of the time (nationally designated important cultural properties).

You will surely be overwhelmed by the 400-year history of Sado Gold Mine and its scale.

 

The Sado Gold Mine was one of the few mines in the world where gold ore was mined and gold and silver were produced for 388 years since its opening in 1601.

In the Edo period, the Sado magistrate's office was established, gold coins were manufactured, and a large mining town with a population of 50,000 was formed and prospered.

The map is the Sado Gold Mine drawn in 1932. The basic facilities are still intact.

01

Aoban Vein Mining Site

The largest ore vein in Sado Gold Mine, extending from Aoban Mabu in the east to Warimabu in the west, is 2,100 meters long. . Also, the average pulse width (myakuhaba) has been recorded as 6 meters on average and 30 meters at maximum.

02

Doyu Warido (rear side)

The view of the V-shaped top of the mountain is behind the symbol of Sado Gold Mine, Doyu no Warito. Here, the open-pit mining site of Daoyu-gyun and the open-pit mining site of Aoban vein are continuous, forming a large-scale mining site.

03

Pumice site trace

Pumice means crushing of ore. The "Pumice Mill" was a factory where ore was crushed using iron pestle and pestle and recovered as amalgam using mercury.

04

Cracking yards, storage sheds, analysis laboratories

At the crushing site, the ore carried out from the mine was crushed to a diameter of 15 centimeters or less by the crusher in the building. A storage shed was built to store the ore processed at the crushing yard.

At the analysis laboratory, the quality of ore veins was confirmed inside the mine, and the quality was checked outside the mine in each process of beneficiation and smelting, as well as the quality and moisture content of the final product.

05

Kyomachi Street

 

06

clock tower

 

07

Sado Magistrate's Office

 

08

The mining office during the period of the Imperial Household Agency's Imperial Household Agency in the mid-Meiji period

This mining office was built after 1889, when the Sado Mine became the property of the Imperial Family. In 1953, when it was downsized, it was transferred to the then Aikawa Town and is currently used as the Aikawa Folk Museum.

09

Strange shaped cupola trace

 

10

thickener trace

This thickener is a facility for separating water and mud for the purpose of reusing industrial water. Normally thickeners are used for concentration purposes, but this thickener was built to reuse water.

11

Kitazawa Mining Plant Site

The flotation method is a method in which riprap is removed from crushed ore by hand, and after further pulverization, sulfide minerals are added to the foam of the foaming agent and floated to concentrate the minerals. The Kitazawa flotation plant has a processing capacity of more than 50,000 tons per month, and was touted as the best in the East at the time.

12

Oma Port

Oma Port has been used for unloading rice and soybeans since the Edo period when the development of gold and silver mines began in Aikawa.

In this way, the modern port was built in 1886 (Meiji 19) in connection with the construction of the site of the Kitazawa Smelter and Refinery. was built with

please note

*Groups (10 people or more) only.

*Our guide will get on your bus and guide you.

*There are places in the itinerary where you will get off the bus and walk around.

*Since the tour includes a national historic site, the tour itinerary may be changed suddenly if repair and maintenance work is carried out.

FAQ

Is the mine tour included?

no.

Excursions to other tunnels such as "Sodayu Mine" and "Doyu Mine" are not included.

Since we don't have much time, is it possible to guide only the ruins of the Kitazawa flotation site?

We also accept guides only for the main observation point of the industrial heritage tour, "Kitazawa flotation site ruins". (@ 500 yen same-day discount not applicable)