The Ore Mountain Mining Region (German: Montanregion Erzgebirge) is an industrial heritage landscape, over 800 years old, in the border region between the German state of Saxony and North Bohemia in Czechia. It is characterised by a plethora off historic, largely original, technical monuments, as well as numerous individual monuments and collections related to the historic mining industry of the region. The identity and authenticity of the mining heritage landscape of the Ore Mountains on both sides of the German-Czech border has no equivalent anywhere in the world and if the region succeeds in being recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site - for which it has been proposed - it should help to preserve it for future generations as a "developing cultural landscape".
Since the first discovery of silver ore in 1168 in Christiansdorf on the territory of the present-day borough of Freiberg, which is included in the Freiberg Mining Field, mining was carried out uninterrupted in the Ore Mountains until 1990. Amongst the raw materials mined over the course of the centuries were silver, tin, zinc, cobalt, nickel, copper and lead, but also hard coal and uranium were won until the 20th century and were motors for the economic development of Saxony. Today deposits of indium, tungsten, tin and lithium are being prospected for their workability.