Gonzen iron mine

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Access to the mine
Visitor station (2016)
Malerva iron ore cleaning and sorting plant
Gonzen iron mine Entrance area with an underground restaurant
Gonzen iron mine Concrete bridge as access to the tunnel with tracks from the mine railway. The narrow-gauge railway ended at the Malerva loading station.

The Gonzen iron mine has been a show mine on Gonzen in Vild near Sargans in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen since 1983 . The mine with around 90 km of tunnels and routes was in operation until 1966 and is a cultural asset of national importance . Iron and manganese ores were mined, especially hematite , magnetite and hausmannite .

history

The ore mining is from 200 BC. Proven. In 1315 smelting plants in Flums , Mels and Plons (today the municipality of Mels) were mentioned in a document, in 1396 the mine itself. This document reports that Count Johann von Werdenberg-Sargans pledged the mine to Duke Leopold IV of Austria . At this point in time, dismantling must have been carried out. As a result of the Appenzell Wars , the mine went to the Counts of Toggenburg in 1406 . In 1483 the estates of the Old Confederation bought the county of Sargans. This made the Swiss Confederation less dependent on iron deliveries from abroad. In the 16th century the mine was given to Zurich iron merchants as an inheritance. In 1654, Landammann Good von Mels became the owner of the mine. As a result of the Thirty Years' War , business flourished and the mine was very successful. In 1767 the descendants sold the mine to Johann Bernold from Glarus and Hans Schulthess from Zurich. But these failed. In 1777 mining and smelting were stopped. The plants fell apart. The ownership rights and mining rights remained with the Bernold family, who in the meantime had settled in Mels. The ore was mined in the early days up to at least the 18th century using fires . Wood was burned directly at the ore vein and the stone was made brittle by heating the ore and quenching it with water. This was then easier to promote. It is estimated that around 90,000 tons of iron ore were mined in the early days. In 1771 about 30 miners worked in the mine.

The ore deposit located between Quintnerkalk had a thickness of 0.5–2.2 m and extended over a base area of ​​over 3 square kilometers. The iron content was around 50–60%, and pure manganese ores also occurred. The deepest mining point was around 350 m, while the highest mining point was around 1400 m. In the chronological order of tires, the deposits were first exploited from above. The ore was transported out of the pit by means of wooden dogs , which were iron from 1839, and then by sledges on steep paths to the valley. The mining of pit I took place during the early and heyday in the 15th to 19th centuries and ended in 1918. In pit II, rediscovered in 1842, and pit IV, larger quantities of ore were mined (mainly 1764–1774). Pit III was a rather insignificant mine field.

In 1823 Johann Georg Neher bought the Plons ironworks and the Gonzen mine from the Bernold family and built a blast furnace in Plons in 1825, which was operated again until 1868 and later, in an improved form, from 1873 to 1878. Until 1873, the Neher family mainly mined through these pits using explosives. During this time around 140,000 tons of iron ore were mined. The dismantling took place using the pillar construction method without wood installation and without offset, as the hanging wall was firm and load-bearing. The ores were completely smelted in Switzerland until around 1900. From 1921 the majority of the ores were sold to the German Ruhr area . The pure manganese ores, which were in great demand, were mainly sold in Switzerland. In 1917 another tunnel, called Nausgrube , was built approx. 500 m northeast of pit I , at approx. 1000 m above sea level. M. driven into the mountain.

Eisenbergwerk Gonzen AG was founded in 1919, and its mining license was extended in 2003 for a further 80 years. Around 1920 the plant employed 150 to 180 people. In 1942, 380 miners extracted 116,000 tons of iron ore. From 1920 to 1951, the ores were transported from Naus to the processing plant in the valley by 1,800 meters long aerial cableway . After the foundation tunnel was built, it was dismantled. Before the cable car and the ground gallery were built, the ore was transported into the valley by sledge.

In 1949 the construction of the basic tunnel began near Vild im Tal, which after 1700 m struck the ore (steep bed). Subsequently, the mining over the Nausgrube of Naus (apex) was stopped. In 1963, natural gas was discovered near the Fluewand Fault, which increased the cost of safeguarding workers. In the course of this, electronic blasting was used and the methane content of the air was continuously measured .

Until 1921, the iron ore was sorted directly in the pit or immediately in front of the pit. Then a cleaning and sorting plant was built in Malerva. The system had a siding with the Sargans train station of the SBB . It also served as the valley station of the cable car. In 1939 it burned down completely, but was rebuilt. After completion of the basic tunnel, the iron ore could be transported directly to Malerva by mine train. For this a concrete bridge was built at the entrance to the mine. Until 1954, the ores were mostly sorted by hand by women. In 1954 Eisenbergwerk Gonzen AG set up an automatic sorting system. The automatic sorting system was able to sort out lime with a grain size of up to 2 mm. This was achieved by hand up to a grain size of 15 mm.

After the end of the war, annual production fell to 18,000 tons. Due to falling world market prices and the increased production costs (many tunnels, strong faults, low thickness of the camp), mining was stopped on May 2, 1966. The total production was 2.7 million tons of iron ore. Even today, the Roteisenstein reserves are estimated at 5.5 million tons.

Association Pro Gonzenbergwerk

The Pro Gonzenbergwerk association was founded on June 4, 1983. In the first half of 1983, 3,500 people visited the abandoned tunnels and mining fields of the mine. In 2005, the entrance area of ​​the mine was expanded to include blasted caverns. A restaurant, a mining museum and the visitor station were created. The costs amounted to 4.5 million francs . 9200 m³ of rock were excavated. This required 20 tons of explosives. Before 2005, the visitors were driven with locomotives and wagons of the mine railway on the approximately 2 km long distance from the area of ​​the processing plant Malerva to the entrance of the mine. The restaurant seats 250 people. The Pro Gonzenbergwerk association offers various guided tours through the mine. A train station journey takes around 2 hours, a normal tour around 2½ hours. There are also full-day tours and 2-day tours including an overnight stay in a Swiss Army bunker near the former mountain station of the cable car in Naus. In 2017, 8070 people took part in 332 guided tours. The temperature in the mine is 13 degrees even in summer. The mine is closed from December 20th to the end of February.

Tunnel on the Gonzen

  • Gonzen (pit I) at 1252 m
  • Pit II
  • Pit III
  • Pit IV
  • Nausgrube at 1000 m (1917)
  • Wolfsloch tunnel (about 1.5 km northeast of Naus) at an altitude of 650 m
  • Ground adit near Vild (1949)

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Gonzen Mine  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Gonzen Iron Mine, Pro Gonzenbergwerk publishing house, Prof. Dr. W. Epprecht October 1984
  2. ↑ Silvio Bucher: Gonzen. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  3. ↑ a b Schweizerische Bauzeitung 109/110 (1937): Das Eisenbergwerk am Gonzen, Canton St. Gallen , issue 18.
  4. ^ Friends of Mining in Graubünden, Proceedings, 18th International Mining and Mining History Workshop in Andeer from September 29 to October 3, 2015, page 31.
  5. ↑ www.sarganserland-walensee.ch Mine Gonzen: memories of the railways
  6. ^ Minerals found in Switzerland
  7. ↑ 18th International Mining and Mining History Workshop Andeer  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bergbau-gr.ch  
  8. ↑ New highlights are planned for the Gonzen mine. Tagblatt Sargans

Coordinates: 47 ° 3 '27 .3 "  N , 9 ° 27' 4.9"  E ; CH1903:  752,900  /  213800