Every day, the two miners cart several hundred kilos of kaolin into the earth shed of the Seilitz mine. There it is stored until the annual transport of about 150 tons of kaolin to the manufactory. However, the Seilitz mine has not been the source of the most important raw material around the white gold from the very beginning. After the first European porcelain production plant started operations at Albrechtsburg in 1710, the kaolin was mined from the deposits in Colditz and later also Aue and transported to Meißen. The fact that this elementary raw material can be mined in the immediate vicinity of Albrechtsburg at all is due to several major coincidences. Feldspar-rich rock was dispersed by a volcanic eruption in the surrounding area, where it weathered. A pitchstone shell protected the kaolin from being carried away by floods. And last but not least in the series of happy coincidences is the discovery of white peaks on the plow in the home field of a manufactory employee, which turned out to be kaolin.

Today it is the smallest mine in Europe and is particularly distinguished by the high quality of the kaolin it contains. The porcelain clay contains no impurities of iron oxide or titanium oxide, so that no gray, yellow or blue tint can be detected in the end product. The unsurpassed purity of the kaolin from the Seilitz mine ensures a strikingly brilliant white in the finished porcelain, which distinguishes MEISSEN. It is also fundamentally responsible for the high dimensional stability of the porcelain shards during the firing process. Only in this way can our unique large figures, such as the Saxonia, be created at all.

But despite all this value and all this indispensability, the mine's corridors are currently collapsing. And, in fact, for good reason. In the currently worked mine field, the miners are already in the fifth level, which is the deepest point where usable kaolin can still be found. It was therefore necessary to open up a new mine field. Thus, 150 meters away from the current production shaft, a new operating area has been created since 2017, in which mining can begin again from the very top in the first level from 2023. And so the most important basis for our porcelain is secured for a long time to come.