Mining in Carinthia
In the late Middle Ages and modern times, mining in Carinthia formed the backbone of the development of this area and made Carinthia one of the most productive countries in the world at that time. Today, apart from a large number of quarries, there are only two underground mining operations: iron mica in Waldenstein (municipality of Wolfsberg ) and magnesite on the Millstätter Alpe near Radenthein . Thus mining in Carinthia only plays a subordinate role economically today. In some alpine areas, which are often difficult to access, the attentive mountaineer will notice tunnel mouth holes or whale signs from ore and gold prospectors. The many legends of dwarfs who shut themselves up in the mountain in order to jealously guard their treasure can be traced back to the difficult life that the miners led at such a great height at that time. It is not for nothing that there is usually a curse in the legends on the treasure .
iron
Iron is without a doubt the most formative of the raw materials that were extracted in Carinthia. The Romans conquered their world empire with weapons made of Noric iron , most of which came from Hüttenberg . There were also many smaller mining areas. This also included Zweinitz .
The start of iron mining on the Hüttenberger Erzberg is estimated to have been around 300 to 200 BC. Adopted. After the Great Migration , Friesach was the first municipality in Carinthia to receive town charter - because of its role as a transshipment point for Hüttenberger iron. From this role, Friesach remained the most important Carinthian city throughout the Middle Ages . The wealth of the Hemma von Gurk family was also drawn from mining, as can be seen in the legends that surround them.
The iron mining was decisive for the construction of the Görtschitztalbahn .
Iron mining in Hüttenberg was not stopped until 1978. The mine was expanded into a show mine.
The most important iron mining area after Hüttenberg was the Innerkrems in Upper Carinthia, where iron ore was mined from 1399 to 1883 at the latest and smelted in Liesertal around Eisentratten .
Iron was also mined in other places, which can be seen in the blast furnaces, which are often still standing after centuries due to their massive construction, but also in place and field names such as Eisenkappel , Eisentratten or the Eisenhut .
In Waldenstein ( Lavanttal ) "iron mica" (finely flaky hematite ) has been mined since 1897 , which is processed into anti-rust coatings . With an annual production of around 6,000 t, the mine supplies half of world production.
silver
Silver was a second important Carinthian raw material. It played a role especially in the Middle Ages ( Friesacher Pfennig ) and the early modern period and carried the bloom that Carinthia had during the Reformation . The most important mining area for silver in Carinthia was Meiselding (mine ditch) and Obervellach in Mölltal.
Designations: Silberbach, Silberegg , Silberberg.
gold
Gold was mainly fetched from the mountain or washed from the streams in the Kliening in the upper Lavant valley and in the Tauern (the name Tauerngold is common today) . Names such as Goldberg or Goldzechkopf are evidence of this .
In the Fleißtal near Heiligenblut am Großglockner , gold was mined from the second half of the 14th century. The precious metal-bearing rock hewn from the mountains was brought into the valley with pack animals and there crushed in a water-powered stamping mill. In the 16th century, a small gold digging village was created at an altitude of 1,800 m near the "Alten Pocher". This was reconstructed in 2004 and today offers tourists the opportunity to wash gold from a stream. There was also gold mining on the border with Salzburg in the Pöllatal area of the Ankogel group .
The legend reports that gold was mined on the Oswaldiberg near Villach in the Middle Ages. The mouth holes of the mines can still be seen today. The gold discoveries dried up without ever having found the main course. The mouth holes are left to decay and may not be entered. There is no tourist use.
lead
Lead was one of the most important ores that were extracted in Carinthia. The expression lead can be found in numerous Carinthian place names, for example in Bleiburg , an important transshipment point at the foot of the Petzen , and in Windisch Bleiberg . Lead was mainly found in the limestone mountains .
The deposits were already mined 3000 years ago, as the Hallstadt-era lead figures from Frög, municipality of Rosegg, show. The most important mining areas were the Petzen, Hochobir , Matschiedl - Windische Höhe in the Gailtal and above all the Erzberg von Bleiberg . The Obir stalactite cave also owes its discovery to lead mining.
Bleiberg was one of the most important lead- zinc mines in Europe. The tunnels extended from the outskirts of Villach to the west for about 15 kilometers to the Rubland area near Paternion . The mine in Bleiberg was one of the most modern in Europe until it was closed in 1993. Today, the Terra Mystica show mine and a climatic tunnel are a reminder of the almost 1,000-year mining period. Parts of the pit are now used as a storage power plant. The Bleiberger thermal spring was discovered during excavation work. There was a massive water ingress, the miners were able to save themselves at the last moment, but large parts of the pit were flooded. The pit was swamped and the spring was drawn. Today it supplies the thermal facilities of Bleiberg.
Arnoldstein took advantage of the late 15th century, the Augsburger trades Family Fugger who also ran the mining industry in Bad Bleiberg, lead deposits to extract the silver from Hungarian and Schwaz Black Copper in a Saigerhütte , called Fuggerau . In all of the areas mentioned, tunnel mouth holes and old heaps testify to past mining.
zinc
The metal zinc always appeared together with lead in the ore deposits and was the main target of mining in Bad Bleiberg until recently. Rich ores had about 15% zinc content. The ores were smelted in Arnoldstein .
Magnesite
The magnesite mining in Radenthein is one of the last active mining companies in Carinthia. The company Veitsch-Radex mines 87,400 t (2003) of raw magnesite, which is processed on site to 44,800 t of magnesium oxide .
grenade
Also in Radenthein, the Granatium Museum is a reminder of the local garnet mining until 1909.
copper
Copper played a subordinate role. Worth mentioning are:
- the copper mining in Großfragant, operated with a lot of effort and little income . Today the railway line built during the First World War , the so-called taxiway , still bears witness to this dismantling. The taxiway is used as a hiking trail for several kilometers,
- an important copper-silver mining in Obervellach ,
- medieval copper mining by the Fuggers south of Villach on Mallestiger Mittagskogel,
- modern copper mining in the Schütt .
Lithium - spodumene
The largest lithium deposit in Europe, which was the target of an experimental mine in the mid-1980s , is located on the ridge of the fire , about 2 km southwest of the wine plains on the Koralpe . Due to the expensive processing of the lithium silicate spodumene , extraction that would have to take place in civil engineering was not economically feasible until the beginning of the 21st century. The deposit is viewed as a reserve in the event of increasing demand or rising prices. The mining site, which was closed after the exploration work , but maintained, was sold in 2011 by the Carinthian coal and steel industry to the Australian company East Coast Minerals ECM . In October 2013, a trial mining of 1000 tons of spodumene was finally started in order to investigate the productivity of the deposit. On the basis of the results of this trial dismantling, the decision regarding regular operation should then be made. The lithium content of the ore containing spodumene is currently estimated at 1.3-1.6%.
antimony
In Rabant - right on the border between East Tyrol and Carinthia - there was an antimony mine.
coal
There is only a small amount of coal in Carinthia. The lignite deposits in the Lavanttal near St. Stefan are worth mentioning, and mining began in the early 19th century. The highest output was achieved in 1962 with 822,000 t. In 1967 operations were stopped due to a fire in the mine.
In the 19th century there were some small coal mines in the Klagenfurt Basin and on the northern edge of the Karawanken ( Penken , Stein im Jauntal , Oberloibach and others).
marble
The Krastal marble has been quarried for several centuries . This is a white, clearly marbled natural stone . Some sculptors are of the opinion that it is of a better quality than the Carrara marble . The Austrian sculptor Max Gangl created almost all of his statues from Krastal marble. In the Carinthian State Archives , the stone was used extensively for the air-conditioned storage.
In the past, the so-called Pörtschach marble was quarried, which is now exhausted. The quarry can be clearly seen from the south motorway near Töschling. The Pörtschach marble is named after the place Pörtschach, where it was previously loaded onto the railroad, although the marble quarries are in Töschling or on the Techelsberg municipality. This marble is white with pink streaks and was used in many places in Klagenfurt , most notably in the Lendhafen . Since there is no identical patterned marble found throughout the world, achieve objects Pörtschacher marble in Klagenfurt fancy prices .
Lime and dolomite
In the Unterdrautal near Villach , the Swiss company Omya AG mines lime in the opencast mine , which is then processed into filler for paper, toothpaste and paint. The quarry is located near the Krastal marble quarry.
In Gösseling there is a limestone quarry that was already in operation in Roman times and was reactivated a few years ago.
In Kellersberg is Wettersteinkalk having a composition of 85% lime and 15% dolomite degraded.
Dolomite is mined in Eberstein and on the Kathreinkogel .
literature
- Hermann Wießner: History of the Carinthian mining industry. 3 volumes. Klagenfurt 1950–1953
- Part I: History of Carinthian precious metal mining. 1950.
- Part II: History of the Carinthian non-ferrous metal mining. 1951.
- Part III: Carinthian iron. 1953.
- Alfred Pichler: Mining in Eastern Carinthia. An inventory of the still visible features of the historical mining in Eastern Carinthia. In: Carinthia II. Special issue No. 60, Klagenfurt 2003, ISBN 3-85328-032-3 , 304 pages ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- Alfred Pichler: Mining in Western Carinthia. Natural Science Association for Carinthia , special issue No. 63, Klagenfurt 2009, 416 pages.
- Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor: Austrian Mining Manual 2004. Volume 78, Vienna 2004.
Web links
- Exhibitions about the Hüttenberger mining industry. Show mine, blast furnace, geotrail
- Obir stalactite cave with show mine in Eisenkappel
- Bleiberg show mine
- Gold mining village Heiligenblut
- Literature database on mining history
Individual evidence
- ↑ Georg Sterk: On the knowledge of the Kliening gold deposit in Lavanttal . (PDF; 3.3 MB) Retrieved July 26, 2011 .
- ↑ The garnet. (No longer available online.) Granatium , archived from the original on April 7, 2014 ; Retrieved April 1, 2014 .
- ↑ The Granatium. Granatium, accessed April 1, 2014 .
- ↑ Hans Krähenbühl: The spread of Tyrolean mining and its influence on Graubünden - 5. The coal and steel industry under the Austrian dukes. (PDF; 2.0 MB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; Retrieved July 15, 2010 .
- ↑ Daily newspaper "Der Standard". Vienna. February 10, 2011, page 18.
- ↑ Kleine Zeitung: Stollen reopened after 25 years ( Memento from October 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Klagenfurt. October 13, 2013.
- ↑ Gösseling. Dolomit Eberstein Neuper GmbH, accessed on April 1, 2014 .
- ↑ Kellerberg. Dolomit Eberstein Neuper GmbH, accessed on April 1, 2014 .
- ↑ Eberstein. Dolomit Eberstein Neuper GmbH, accessed on April 1, 2014 .
- ^ Karl Krainer : The Trias in Carinthia . In: Natural Science Association for Carinthia (Ed.): Carinthia II . Klagenfurt 1996, p. 79, 84 ( PDF (18.3 MB) on ZOBODAT - section “The Permatrias of Rosegg”).