The deposit is located in the eastern foothills of the Gailtal Alps in Carinthia. The main elements of the deposit are zinc and lead, which make up the ore bodies as zinc blende and galena. The first documented mention of Bleiberg as a mining area for lead ore dates back to 1333. However, mining in Bleiberg was initially only of minor importance. Mining was "transferred", i.e. the owners did not work the mines themselves, but handed them over to various nobles and citizens on a pledge basis.

The Bamberg bishop, as the owner, only received the "Fron", which amounted to 20 hundredweights in the middle of the 15th century. The "Fron" was the tenth part of the mined ore. It was collected by the mining judge and administered or awarded by the castle office. The oldest mining regulations for Bleiberg were issued between 1487 and 1495 and governed the mining of ore, its extraction and sorting, the wages and working hours of the miners, etc. In its heyday, 500 to 600 miners were employed in this mine.

The Stefanie pit is the first place where wulfenite was found.