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Several buildings and structures at the Historic Sado Gold
Mine, situated on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, and owned
by Mitsubishi Materials subsidiary Golden Sado Inc., have
recently been designated as Important Cultural Properties¹ by
the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology.
The mining equipment and machinery used to expand
production in the early part of the Showa period (1925 –
1988) have been preserved and the buildings have been
acclaimed for their important historical value. The Sado mine
was opened in 1601 and did much to support the finances
of the Tokugawa Shogunate throughout the Edo era. In 1896
the mine was sold to the Mitsubishi Joint Stock Company
and operated under the Mitsubishi name until 1989. During
the mine’s 388 years of operation, 15 million tons of ore
were extracted, producing 78 tons of gold and 2,300 tons of
silver and making it one of the largest such mines in Japan.
In 1970 part of the disused gold mine was opened up as a
tourist attraction and by the end of 2012 had attracted over
20 million visitors. |
| In 2010, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs
included the Sado Mines in its tentative list of nominations
for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Today, the
Niigata Prefecture and Sado authorities are preparing a final
submission to have the
Sado Mines inscribed in
the 2017 World Heritage
List, and its designation
as an Important Cultural
Property marks a major
step toward this. |
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Ohdate shaft hoist house
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Note: The cover photograph shows the Dohyu-no-wareto hilltop landmark above the remains of the
strip mining resulting from the discovery of a gold seam vein in 1601. The V-shaped cleft in the
hilltop looks as if it has been hewn by axe and is an iconic symbol of the Sado Gold Mine.
Note 1: They include Ohdate shaft, Ohdate shaft hoist house, Dohyu and Takato adits (mine
entrances), Takato ore crusher building, Takato ore bin and conveyor yard, a battery
locomotive shed and the Ainoyama up-and down-stream arch bridges. |
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