Located in the Nahe valley near Fischbach along the German Gemstone Route ('Deutsche Edelsteinstrasse'), a few kilometres away from Idar-Oberstein, this was one of the largest and most significant copper mines in western Germany up until the Napoleonic era. Even if the "Hosenberg mine" stood in the shadow of the copper mines of Tirol and Hungary with regard to output, the quality of copper from this mine was unsurpassed. The mine was in operation until 1792 when French Revolution troops began to occupy the left bank of the River Rhine.