Mining in Bad Häring
Mining in Bad Häring has been practiced since the second half of the 18th century. Was reduced gloss brown coal , a lignite higher quality, and since 1854 limestone and marl for cement production .
history
Bad Häring's lignite deposits have been known since the Middle Ages . The early discovery of the deposit can probably be traced back to the mine gases from burning coal seams escaping in several places in the forest . The mining of lignite goes back to the year 1766, when the Brixlegg miner Jakob Weindl - motivated by a competition of Empress Maria Theresa - recognized the potential of an economic development. During the first few years coal was extracted in a relatively unstructured manner, mainly by farmers as a sideline, later by a private union in opencast mining at the outcrop of the seams at approx. 760 to 870 m above sea level. The coal was mainly sold in the Haller Saline after wood firing was replaced by coal firing to evaporate the brine .
Systematic dismantling was subsequently accelerated. In 1777 the Theresiastollen was built on behalf of the Haller Saline. In order to increase the yield, several tunnels were cut in the long term so that by 1800 there were already 10 tunnels in operation. These included the Josefistollen (1783), the Franziskistollen (1784) and the Elisabethstollen (1785). The Barbarastollen was also built at this time (1792) and was the deepest tunnel to date, which provided the highest quality coal. The Franziskistollen met the coal seam after about 600 meters of tunnel. Due to the steep collapse of the seam, it could only be opened up from Häring through this passage in the upper part.
During the Bavarian occupation of Tyrol from 1806 to 1814, further tunnels were opened, such as the Ferdinand tunnel in the Berggrübl district around 1810, so that the mining achieved an annual production of around 10,000 t. In order to reach those previously untouched deposits that were located below the Franziskistollen, the planning of a shaft was pushed ahead and this was implemented a short time later.
However, the technical possibilities at that time soon proved to be limited, so that it was not possible to follow the coal seam further down to the wedge by means of shaft conveyance . Therefore, another tunnel was built at the level of the innersole, starting from the former cement works in Kirchbichl. That passage, called Fürst Lobkowitz Erbstollen, was struck in 1839 and only hit the seam in 1870 after a length of approx. 2500 m. With a total length of the adit running to SE of 2,820 m, it is the longest in the Häringer mining industry. Despite its considerable length, the tunnel proved to be the most sensible way of extracting the coal inexpensively and with primitive means. Due to problems and several accidents during construction, the construction took about 30 years. The tunnel, which extrapolated over its construction time, achieved an average daily advance of around 25 cm, was not only of great importance for the extraction of coal, but also for ventilating and draining the pit water. After the completion of the Erbstollen, coal was mined in the Berggrüblrevier, the Barbararevier, the Karlstollen and the Erbstollen.
Since the completion of the Erbstollen in 1870 ushered in a 20-year heyday of the Häringer coal mining industry, it was possible to calmly turn to new projects in order to guarantee security of supply for decades to come. For this reason they wanted to expand the mining area into deeper layers and began in 1893 with the sinking of a further shaft from the bottom of the Erbstollen. The newly constructed underground excavation shaft was sunk 327 m and together with the newly constructed shafts it was possible to quadruple the amount of mining in the entire mining sector to almost 40,000 t. Since an almost complete exploitation of the coal deposits became apparent above the Erbstollen in 1890, the extraction increasingly shifted to the newly constructed horizons of the underground construction shaft.
In 1911, after test drilling, the new shaft was finally sunk from the 452 m tunnel level, which was supposed to develop the deepest coal deposits. The mine was put into operation in 1913. After a collapse in output due to a number of unfortunate events such as the recurring mine fires, an increase in tonnages was achieved and around 1910 almost reached the maximum production of 40,000 t. During the First World War, the best result to date was temporarily achieved, with 43,570 t of yield being recorded.
During the global economic crisis at the end of the 20s, the entire mining was subject to a savings program, the consequences of which only allowed coal to be extracted via the new shaft or the hereditary tunnel.
In the inter-war period, the delivery rates could be kept almost constant at 35,000 t, only in 1926 there was another slump due to a devastating major fire.
The new shaft was constantly being widened in depth, with its bottom only 51.1 m above Adrian level in 1937. Further exploratory boreholes were sunk up to 5 m above the Adriatic Sea. However, since there was no longer any profitable extraction in the lowest mining areas, the extraction of coal was essentially limited to the horizons above.
The coal mining industry, which had meanwhile been in heavy loss, was closed in 1941, with the machines dismantled, the tunnels bricked up and buildings and land sold. The workforce was taken over by mining companies such as the Brixlegg copper mine, the molybdenum mine on the Alpeiner Scharte and the Nösslachjoch coal mine . At the end of the Second World War in 1945, a shortage of fossil fuels led to a short-term reopening with around 20 miners at the Franziskistollen. However, a profitable operating result could not be achieved due to the low coal prices so that the mining was abandoned.
Only a loan from the State of Tyrol and financial support from the municipality of Bad Häring enabled the construction of a connecting cable car from the Franziski tunnel to the cable car ramp at the Maximilian tunnel at the end of 1945, which could be used for overground transport. In addition, new machines were purchased with high financial investment and a processing plant as well as a sorting, bunker and loading system were built in Kirchbichl. In the following years coal was mined again from the upper horizons of the Franziskistollen and Berggrübl until 1954. The Barbarahorizon and the Josefistollen were also reopened; The main buyers of the coal were the wood fiber board factory in Wörgl and Private for heating purposes.
From 1949, the energy carrier was no longer transported by cable car, but again via the Erbstollen. In 1954 a charring of the tunnel pillar in the south became apparent, an expansion to the north did not seem possible due to the mine fires, which reoccurred again and again, which is why the horizon was not fully exploited. In order to find a continuation of the deposit and thus to ensure the continued existence of the Häringer mine, geological reports were drawn up. With regard to coal deposits, these yielded negative results, which is why a permanent shutdown of coal mining after almost 200 years of existence seemed essential. During the last revival of the mine in the post-war period, a remarkable 175,000 t of yield could be achieved.
Fires in the Bad Häringer coal mine
The fire hazard in the Häringer coal mining is very high. The fires are mainly caused by the ventilation when the coal seams come into contact with oxygen. The first fire after the seams were recovered occurred in 1795 at the Theresienstollen tunnel. At that time glowing rubble was removed for four days and water was discharged into the pit.
In 1811, strong warming was registered again in the Josephi district, with the heated rubble being removed again and water being introduced through pipes. The danger was only averted in 1815, but new problems had to be faced as the wet masses began to slide in many places and required countermeasures.
As a prevention against newly emerging fires, the intention was to remove any small coal in the next 8–12 years and to fill the charred rooms with rubble. However, complete evacuation of the pit was impossible and very costly, so no attempt was made to do so. Although they were aware of the latent danger of a fire, inadequate countermeasures remained, among other things because the workforce and production volumes were limited.
The greatest fire disaster occurred on January 25, 1836 in Franziski-Feld, which continues to this day. A year earlier, a strong heat development was detected. Within a few hours the fire spread rapidly, so that the next morning the entire northern field was already on fire. All available personnel were called in to fight the fire, and more than 100 additional workers were hired from Häring and the surrounding area. It quickly became clear that the only option was to contain the source of the fire, for which purpose a fire wall was to be built. After a year and a half, the space for the dam was created and the silting work began. Above days one could see strong smoke escaping in many places, whereby all smoke points were sealed with clay. In some cases, forest areas also had to be cleared for this purpose. Two and a half years after the fire broke out, glowing coal was found again and the area was being drowned. However, since the dam system was expanded accordingly, flooding was not considered. The underground fires caused numerous pings on the surface, which were then filled.
For several decades, the Häringer were spared major fire incidents, only on January 22nd, 1893, a fire was noticed in the northern Erbstollenfeld due to spontaneous combustion. Production was stopped for almost three months because almost the entire workforce had to be called in to fight the fire again.
During the following years, sources of fire flared up in several places that could never be completely contained. Due to the strong smoke and gas development, complaints were often voiced, which is why the decision was made to flood the entire civil engineering field under great time pressure. Initially, the water level in the mine rose up to four meters, the water heated up to over 45 ° Celsius, the air temperature rose to 60 ° Celsius. After the water had been pumped out, glowing debris was found again, whereupon the fire area was sealed off.
In January 1907, the source of the fire spread to the Elisabeth tunnel, whereupon mining was abandoned due to the inferiority of the coal.
literature
- Alfred Löhmer: History of the Häringer coal mining: factory and people. With an addendum by Dipl.Ing. Otto Sykora. Self-published, Häring 1953.
- Oskar Schulz, Herbert W. Fuchs: Coal in Tyrol: A historical, coal-petrological and deposit-related consideration. In: Archive for deposit research of the Federal Geological Institute. 13, 1991, pp. 123-213, PDF on ZOBODAT .