Shimizudani Refinery Ruins

"🏣 Omori-cho, Ota City, Shimane Prefecture
🅿️🚗...it wasn't nearby.
*
I rode my electric-assist bicycle up the steep slope.
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1886
The remains of a refinery, developed by the Fujita Group, a company founded by Denzaburo Fujita.
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1895
It was built with a huge investment, taking advantage of the slope.
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1896
Due to poor ore quality and insufficient refining capacity, it became unprofitable and operations ceased in 1896.
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The remains of the Shimizu refinery had a 33-meter-high, eight-tiered stone wall, and ore was transported to the top by trolley.
A horizontal multi-tube smoke boiler, state-of-the-art for the time, was installed.
*
Only the stone wall remains today.
It is said to be a valuable relic of a modern refinery of the time.
*
I missed it a little, so what was the refinery like?"

ばあばbaaba

"After strolling past Ryugenji Temple, we cycled back and took a side road to visit the Kiyomizudani Smelting Site.

This site, built during Japan's Meiji period, was built with a massive investment and state-of-the-art technology, taking advantage of the mountain's slopes. However, the poor quality of the silver produced simply didn't cover the costs, so construction ceased after only a year and a half.

We rode up the steep slope and saw only the remains of the building, overgrown with weeds and stone. As we gazed, it suddenly felt like a spaceship base from the movie Star Wars, its secluded exterior indistinguishable from the surroundings, yet a spaceship could launch at any moment.

Ah! I'm dreaming again!!!"

Chun Chuan Wang

"The Shimizudani Smelter Ruins are located in Omori-cho, Oda City, Shimane Prefecture, approximately 8.8 km southeast of JR Nima Station.

These are the remains of a massive smelter built using cutting-edge Meiji-era technology, utilizing the slope of a mountain.

In 1895, Fujita-gumi acquired the mining rights to Iwami Silver Mine and invested a huge amount of money to build it.
Employing the latest technology, it processed the large amounts of ore that Fujita-gumi extracted from nearby tunnels.
However, after more than 350 years of mining, Iwami Silver Mine's silver deposits had already been depleted, and the ore was found to be of lower quality than expected. The technology used to extract pure silver also seemed to disappoint, and operations were ultimately suspended after just a year and a half.

Fujita-gumi sought to reduce losses by relocating its refining facilities to other mines under its control, such as Jiufen in Taiwan, which was then part of the Empire of Japan. The former Shimizudani smelter site was transformed into an electrical substation, but little is known about its subsequent fate.
Today, it's nothing more than a mass of stone and concrete standing quietly on a green hillside, but the surrounding area still contains the remains of miners' housing, the electrical substation, the ore dressing plant, and a trolley track."

原和