Braubach lead and silver smelter

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The lead and silver smelter Braubach with the distinctive three chimneys
BSB recycling

The lead and silver smelter in Braubach was a lead and silver smelter in Braubach ( Rhineland-Palatinate ). Today there is still a so-called secondary lead smelter here , in which lead scrap, mainly from old lead batteries, is recycled.

The industrial monument Blei- and Silberhütte Braubach has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Upper Middle Rhine Valley since 2002 .

history

Since 1691 the mined here in the area was Lead - Zinc - and silver - ore processed. Initially the hut was operated as a silver smelter for the local mines, later as a lead smelter.

A striking monument of the hut are the three chimneys on the Pankert mountain, directly behind the Marksburg . The smelter smoke generated during the operation was led up through exhaust ducts. The system is one of the first attempts at immission control .

A legacy of centuries of mining activities and the smelting of mineral resources on site were extensive contaminated sites and environmental pollution . In a study in the 1980s, the city of Braubach had one of the highest levels of lead pollution in the air and soil in Germany. As a result, the operators of the hut took extensive measures to improve environmental and health protection. In an environmental medical examination in 2010, no health risk values ​​were found in the population.

Metallurgical plant

The first silver smelter was founded in Braubach in 1691. When the silver deposits dried up, the plant was converted to processing lead.

The iron and steel works led its exhaust air through smoke ducts to a hill and let it flow into three chimneys. The cooling in the long flues caused the precipitation of poisonous arsenic trioxide (see hut smoke ), which from time to time was removed from the channels as a white powder. The emission of the arsenic-free exhaust air at the altitude caused a distribution effect in a higher layer of air. This idea was taken up again a century later when coal-fired power plants were built with chimneys up to 300 m high, precisely for the sake of the "distribution effect".

Today the plant is operated as a secondary lead smelter by BSB Recycling GmbH, a company belonging to Berzelius Metall GmbH, also based in Braubach . Secondary lead smelters are recycling companies that obtain so-called secondary lead from the recycling of lead-containing products. Lead-acid batteries from the automotive and industrial sectors are predominantly used in the modern plants. The plastic polypropylene (PP) contained in the batteries is processed into PP compounds of the Berzelius brand Seculene® PP. Tin alloys are another by-product. The old batteries are delivered by Berzelius Logistik Service GmbH, a battery collection company with nationwide operations.

Mining

In the area around Braubach, a number of tunnels have been built over time to mine lead, tin, silver and other ores. The Romans already mined silver here. Mining was first mentioned in a document in 1691 . Because of the rich mineral resources Braubach, which is owned by was Gottfried von Eppstein was, on December 1, 1276 by King Rudolf von Habsburg , the city charter granted. The mountain freedom of 1536 brought the citizens of Braubach a number of privileges. Landgrave Moritz issued the first mountain regulations in 1616 .

The names of some of the mines in the area are Viktoriastollen , Albertschacht , Schacht Phillipp , Moritzstollen , Segengottesstollen and Grube Rosenberg . The Rosenberg mine was the last to be closed in 1963.

See also

literature

  • BSB Recycling GmbH (Braubach) (Ed.): 300 years of lead and silver works in Braubach 1691-1991 , BSB Recycling, 1991
  • Schnorrer-Köhler, G. & David W .: The lead and silver smelter Braubach and their dump minerals , Lapis, vol. 16, no. 1, p. 38, 1991
  • David Lambert: Bergbau in Braubach , 138 pages, over 60 images, Lahnbrück-Verlag, 2012

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Private homepage on the history of the city of Braubach (last accessed on April 9, 2018)
  2. ↑ Wash your hands . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1989 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Braubacher less exposed to lead in: Rhein-Zeitung , 23 July 2010
  4. ↑ Brief report by the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry for the Environment, Forests and Consumer Protection on the environmental medical examination of the physical lead exposure of the population of Braubach by the State Office for the Environment, Water Management and Trade Supervision (LUWG) in 2010
  5. ↑ BSB Recycling GmbH - secondary lead smelter with polypropylene compounding plant , website ECOBAT Group

Coordinates: 50 ° 16 ′ 27 ″  N , 7 ° 39 ′ 21 ″  E