Leonie iron ore mine
| Leonie iron ore mine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
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| other names | Leonie pit | ||
| Mining technology | Transverse structure | ||
| Funding / year | 580,000 (1982) tons | ||
| Funding / total | 5200000 t of iron ore | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Maxhütte | ||
| Employees | 350 (1982) | ||
| Start of operation | October 10, 1977 | ||
| End of operation | May 11, 1987 | ||
| Successor use | Grubenfelder Leonie nature reserve | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Iron ore | ||
| Iron ore | |||
| Raw material content | 47% | ||
| Greatest depth | 185 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 49 ° 42 '2.8 " N , 11 ° 38' 1.2" E | ||
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| local community | Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate | ||
| country | Free State of Bavaria | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
The Leonie iron ore mine was a mine in Auerbach in the Upper Palatinate . It was operated from 1977 to 1987 by the Maxhütte steelworks in Upper Palatinate . The Leonie mine mined white and brown iron ore on the stick-shaped chalk ore deposit of the same name . With an Fe content of approx. 47%, it was the richest iron ore deposit in the Federal Republic of Germany. After the closure, an estimated 20 million tons of iron ore remained in the deposit .
history
In 1877, Maxhütte also acquired the first mine in Auerbach, Leonie - later called Leonie 1 or Alte Leonie to distinguish it from the new plant - from Theodor von Cramer-Klett , the founder of MAN, in addition to its mines in the Sulzbach district . In addition, the hut had owned a number of ore fields in Auerbach since 1875, but these were not yet used but were intended to serve as resources, such as Nitzelbuch, Welluck and Bernreuth. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, further shafts were sunk in Auerbach, some of which were quickly closed again due to unprofitability. The Leonie 2 and Minister Falk pits, which had been started between 1900 and 1903, were closed just a few years later because the water ingress could not be mastered. In this regard, one had more luck with the Maffei I and Maffei II shafts sunk in the Nitzelbuch ore deposit between 1905 and 1906, which continued to produce well into the 1970s. In 1921 the old mine Leonie I was shut down as dismantled. In 1943, a conveyor tunnel was driven up to 30 m deep at Schleichershof , which was called "Kleine Leonie" (Leonie 3). A conveyor belt carried the ore into the bunker of the cable car. In 1945 the company was stopped.
In 1971, the last efforts resulted to sink a shaft again. The drilling for Leonie IV, which had already begun in 1838, was resumed, as it was the last mineable iron ore deposit in the Federal Republic.
The exploration began with the sinking of the Leonies shaft on August 13, 1972 because of water-bearing layers by means of freezing processes , the ore extraction began in February 1977. After the last layers on St. Anna in the summer of 1974 and in the Maffei shafts in 1972, Leonie stayed IV remained the last shaft in the Maxhütte until it was closed.
With the increasing drop in the price of foreign ores, Leonie ore became too expensive in the mid-1980s and from then on was almost completely dumped . On April 17, 1987, the Maxhütte filed for bankruptcy. To save the steelworks, the principle of the integrated steel mill with its own raw material base was abandoned. The Leonie mine was therefore to be liquidated as quickly as possible, and the ore that had been heaped up was transported to the smelter within a short time.
On May 8, 1987, the last shift was carried out. Immediately thereafter, the decommissioning work began , which ended on November 28, 1989 at 11 a.m. with the shutdown of the drainage system and the filling of the weather shaft . This ended the last chapter of the last German ore mine after only ten years of production.
The iron ore mining pit is designated as an important geotope by the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (geotope number: 371G002). After the mine was shut down, some of the cavities created during mining collapsed. The result is a multitude of depressions and faults, so-called sinkholes . Since 1996, the mining area east of the conveyor system has been declared a Grubenfelder Leonie nature reserve . and is grazed by Heck cattle and Exmoor horses. A wooden walkway leads to some of the most impressive sinkholes, the rest of the area is not allowed to be entered.
Others
The Auerbach iron deposit is known for its extraordinary minerals. It is the only known site of the rare mineral Churchit- (Y) in Germany.
literature
- Kurt von Gehlen, Hermann Harder (1956): On the genesis of Cretaceous iron ores from Auerbach (Upper Palatinate) , Heidelberg contributions to mineralogy and petrography, Vol. 5 , Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 5 , 1956, pp. 118-138, PDF
- Johannes Pfeufer (1983): On the genesis of the iron ore deposits of Auerbach-Sulzbach-Rosenberg-Amberg (Upper Palatinate), (Genesis of the Auerbach-Sulzbach-Rosenberg-Amberg iron ore deposits (Upper Palatinate)) Geol. Jahrb., Series D, 64 , 3-69
- Johannes Pfeufer: On the history of the Upper Palatinate mining industry during the past century and a half , in: Acta Albertina Ratisbouensia 50, 1977, no. 2, pp. 1–25.
- Johannes Pfeufer: The Upper Palatinate iron ore mining after the Second World War. Experienced and shaped mining history , Bochum 2000 (publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum p. 89).
- Günther Schwemmer: The history of iron production in the central Upper Palatinate in the 19th and 20th centuries , Diplomicaverlag 1989, Google Books
- H. Stanjek (1983): Auerbach / Oberpfalz. Phosphate minerals from the Leonie mine , Lapis 8 (3), 9-18; 42
Web links
- Mining and hammering in Auerbach. Retrieved on October 4, 2012 (description of iron ore mining in Auerbach).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Mining Archive Bochum : Holdings 142 Eisenwerk-Gesellschaft Maximilianshütte mbH, Mining Administration Auerbach, Auerbach (Upper Palatinate)
- ^ "Bernreuth" erroneously called "Bernrath"
- ^ Albert Gieseler: Maximilianshütte-Eisenwerk-Gesellschaft GmbH
- ↑ Schwemmer, p. 103
- ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Environment, Geotop Eisenerzabbau Grube Leonie (accessed on October 16, 2017).
- ↑ a b c Leonie pit
- ^ Industrial history: The Auerbach ore mines