The history of mining in Willrother has been documented since the 14th century. In 1338 iron ore mining in the Horhausen area was first mentioned in a document. Until 1771 it was mostly operated by self-employed workers.

From 1771 the Kurtrierische Staat took over the Horhausen mines in order to supply the Sayner Hütte with their ores. Between 1803 and 1815 the pits and the Sayner hut belonged to the Count of Nassau-Weilburg. Only then did more regular operations return, as the pits and Sayner Hütte were part of Prussia . As early as 1811, an hereditary tunnel, the "deep St. George's tunnel", was built on the Georg pit. After eleven years of construction, the tunnel reached a length of 533 m with a depth of 73 m. With the purchase of the Horhausen iron ore mines by Alfred Krupp in 1865, an accelerated mechanization of mining began. Two years later, Krupp had a machine shaft sunk at the Georg pit.

This initially received a 20 HP steam engine for promotion . The shaft already had a depth of 155 m in 1885. The entire depth of the shaft was last 968 m in 1965.

In the years 1898/99 a cable car was built to the Louise mine for the further transport of the ores.

This was used until the mine was closed in 1930. In 1892 the Girmscheid mine, located in the municipality of Gierene, was consolidated with the Georg mine. It had been in operation as Wiedische Grube since 1803.

In 1926 the "Sieg-Lahn-Bergbaugesellschaft mbH" acquired the Georg mine and modernized the plant two years later. It got new electrical conveying and processing systems and a new wash house . In the course of the global economic crisis, the production on Georg was stopped around 1930. Production was briefly interrupted towards the end of the Second World War. In the autumn of 1945, the promotion was resumed with 535 employees, funded by the Marshall Plan and later with funds from the coal and steel union .

In 1952 a second shaft was sunk. This was 913 m deep and received a 56 m high headframe, which is still standing today and can be seen from afar (industrial monument since 1988). From 1953 the Georg mine owned belonged to Erzbergbau Siegerland AG . In 1964 the workforce numbered only 370.

The daily output was last 740 tons. On March 31, 1965, the last shift was moved and the mine officially closed on May 21, 1965. Grube Georg and Grube Füssenberg were the last in the Siegerland and Wieder districts.