Exploration and extraction of potash salts in Mecklenburg
Potash salts, initially also called “Staßfurt salts”, are of immense importance for plant nutrition after being processed in the factory and have now been indispensable for agriculture for almost a century and a half.
In the following, the discovery of these salts in general and the search, exploration and extraction of them in Mecklenburg in particular will be discussed.
The world's first potash finds
Mining for gold, silver, copper, lead and many other minerals including the processing and processing of these mineral resources as well as the saltworks have been documented since the Middle Ages and early modern times. So the question arises, why has mining on potash salts only been taking place for almost a century and a half?
The town of Staßfurt, first mentioned in a document in 806, is closely linked to the production of salt from a saltworks . It is assumed that the old Staßfurt castle, which stood next to the old salt works, was originally built to protect the naturally emerging salt springs, which "gushed" on both sides of the Bode .
The Staßfurt saltworks came into Prussian possession in 1797 . "[...] By means of thorough rationalization measures, such as the demolition of the many existing small boiling houses and the concentration of the boiling operation in a new boiling house, which was put into operation in 1801, the state tried to increase the efficiency of the saltworks again and to maintain operations , which was still the main source of income for the Staßfurt population. For the sole elevation, the ancient horse art (horse göpel ) that was only necessary repaired was retained. Since the brine contained only 17% table salt or 200 g / liter was relatively weak, it should have been enriched. The plan considered in 1817 to enlarge the saltworks further and to build a graduation house was, however, dropped again, probably due to lack of funds, in order to later obtain a perfect, highly saturated brine in a completely new way, the way of drilling. It is to the merit of the creator of the Saxon salt pans, Bergrat Borlach , who died in 1768, to have been the first to suggest that where there are brine springs, there must also be salt underground. The view was later confirmed by the drilling of rock salt deposits in southern Germany and, in 1837, also in Artern ”. [Sic]
In 1839, the sinking of a deep borehole began on the salt works in Staßfurt . After twelve years of drilling, this well was stopped in 1851 at a depth of 581 m in rock salt . But the “bitter-tasting” brine taken from this borehole contained, to the general disappointment, a large amount of undesirable additions (including potassium chloride ). One had the choice either to abandon the borehole or to use it as a pilot hole for a shaft through which the required pure rock salt for brine enrichment could be extracted separately . Ultimately, the decision was made to sink two shafts lying close to each other (Teufbeginn shaft “ von der Heydt ” on December 4, 1851; Teufbeginn shaft “ von Manteuffel ” on February 9, 1852).
When the groundbreaking ceremony for the sinking of a new salt shaft took place, none of those present suspected the far-reaching importance of this enterprise. Without exaggeration, the following story of potash salts could be supplemented with the adjectives “ initially frustrating, later euphoric ”.
About 6000 double hundredweight of the recovered over the older rock salt upcoming carnallite - with his discovery as overburden salt referred - have been carelessly on stockpile overthrown. The first attempts to determine a possible use for the same soon followed. [...] “Initially discredited by the failures achieved with them, their importance was only recognized after Adolph Frank had proven after extensive experiments that the chemical and physical properties of the carnallite salts caused by the presence of chlorine magnesium were a major obstacle to their use as fertilizers formed. He proved that the utilization of these salts for technical and agricultural purposes only through further processing (concentration), respectively. by removing the magnesium chloride contained therein. In 1861 the first potash factory was put into operation in Staßfurt, and in 1862 the first "crude sulfuric acid potash" came on the market. Due to the freight conditions, people soon learned to concentrate potash fertilizers for more distant areas, and as early as 1863 Frank brought the first concentrated potash fertilizer in the form of potassium chloride with a content of 50 and 80% on the market ”. Building on this experience, industrial fertilizer production developed very quickly.
The so-called Staßfurter Berggeschrey could be heard everywhere .
[...] “This was the starting point of a rapid development in the course of which, up to the turn of the century, many mining companies were founded on German territory to extract and process potash salts. By July 1, 1907, there were already 58 fully operational potash shafts and 31 shafts were being sunk. The shaft depth fluctuated between 225 m (Brefeld shaft of the Royal Mining Inspection in Staßfurt) and 927 m (Siegfried I shaft of the union of the same name near Salzderhelden) ”.
For those interested, the further fate of the potash shafts "von der Heydt" and "von Manteuffel" is described here:
| Operation and end of the first two Staßfurt potash mines, views of the area in 2010. |
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| [...] “The von der Heydt shaft was set up as a cableway and water retention shaft, the Manteuffel shaft as a delivery shaft. Both shafts were originally brought to a depth of 334 m and after 1888 they were sunk further to 387 m. The rock salt extraction was started in 1857 in the older rock salt. The scheduled extraction of potash from the carnallite deposit took place in 1861. The pits were built in a depth range of 208 to 387 m. In 1877, 504 miners were employed on this double shaft system. The production amounted to 50,259 t rock salt and 181,514 t potash salts. The mine had a grinder system. In 1893, production on the von Manteuffel shaft was stopped. Since then the Achenbach shaft has served as the new extraction shaft. The von der Heydt shaft was thrown off and filled in in 1903. The Royal Prussian Salt Mine in Staßfurt had to be abandoned in 1901 as a result of water ingress from the Herzoglich-Anhaltisches Salzbergwerk Leopoldshall I / II. In 1905 both shafts were filled “[sic].
Since 1883 the historic town center of Staßfurt has sunk by about 7 m. On an area of 200 hectares, around 800 buildings had to be demolished as a result of mountain damage until the 1960s; including the town hall and the Johanniskirche. |
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The exploration of potash deposits in Mecklenburg
The enormous and steadily increasing demand for crude potash salts in the second half of the 19th century also stimulated the search for suitable deposits in the then Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, which was largely characterized by agriculture.
In the German states, until the discovery of the profitable exploitation of the potash overburden salts, which were previously considered “worthless”, only rock salt, but not potash salts, was in the focus of the sovereigns when legally stipulating shelf rights . The first state to enact more extensive shelf rights was Mecklenburg-Schwerin . In the ordinance of May 16, 1879, § 1 stipulated: [...] “Rock salt and the salts that come with it, namely potash, magnesia and boron salts and the salt deposits to be used in the operation are subject to the property owner's right of disposal locked out. The exploration and extraction of the named minerals in our lands is reserved exclusively for our government ”[sic].
Two geological indications from nature in the southwest of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin raised hopes that potash salts could also be found in this country. On the one hand, there was the pit water in the Gypsum Quarry Lübheen, which became increasingly salty as the depth of the quarry increased; on the other hand, the salt spring in Conow near Malliss, which has been known since the early Middle Ages .
Drilling at Lübenheen
The tendency towards the increasing salinization of the mine water in the Lübheen gypsum quarry was confirmed by sunk shallow boreholes. In 1869 the state government commissioned the Clausthal mining captain Ottiliae to assess the situation. In his 43-page report "Is to be suspected under the gypse rock salt occurring near Lybthena in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and how it could be used" ( Ernst Hermann Ottiliae :) of August 14, 1869, he recommended the sinking of a 1000 Foot (291 m) deep hole. This drilling began on August 1, 1874 and reached an extensive rock salt deposit on December 3, 1878, i.e. after 4 years and 4 months . When it reached a final depth of 477 m, it pierced a 150 m thick rock salt deposit. This fact was sensational because it was previously assumed that salt stores could only be found in the Magdeburg-Halberstädter basin. In 1879, the Royal Prussian Oberbergrat Pinno, who advocated the sinking of a shaft, was called in to assess the drilling results . Further systematic drillings confirmed the existence of a salt dome north of Lübenheen.
Drilling at the Jessenitz manor
Only the owner of the Jessenitz manor was exempt from the above-mentioned sovereign ordinance of May 16, 1879 by means of the “ highest rescript ” . The first search drilling - started on September 11, 1882 - found rock salt at a depth of 258.7 m and potash salts from 270.7 m. This borehole was ceased in rock salt on May 10, 1883 at a depth of 372.7 m. A second core drill hole 350 m south of the first also opened up potash and rock salts from a depth of 260.5 m in 1886. When further shallow boreholes to the west of the connecting line between the two search boreholes encountered the gypsum cap at a depth of only 36 m, the starting point for the Jessenitz shaft was found. The starting point of the shaft is on the southwest flank of the NW-SE trending salt dome Lübenheen-Jessenitz. This saline structure sits on an approx. 17 km long and approx. 10 km wide northwest-facing salt foot.
Boreholes at Conow-Malliss
The historically transmitted knowledge of the old Conow salt works in the southwestern area of the Conow district and the so-called “ dry and wet Teufelskuhlen ” interpreted as pinging , which are about 1.3 km west of Conow, has long been suspected of being a salt deposit underground. Between 1906 and 1908 a total of four deep boreholes were drilled. A well drilled on the northern edge of the “ Nassen Teufelskuhle ” was found at a depth of 302 m with potash. The sinking of the shaft began on January 22, 1910 at this borehole. The Conow salt deposit is a complicated salt dome , the base area of which is approximately elliptical and measures around 21.125 km² at a depth of 500 m .
The extraction of potash salts in Mecklenburg
Potash salts were extracted from three potash and rock salt mines in the southwest of Mecklenburg and processed into potash fertilizer salts in associated potash factories (“chlorinated potassium factories”). In these
(Mining of potash and rock salt from 1900 to 1912)
(Mining of potash and rock salt from 1905 to 1916)
(Mining of potash and rock salt from 1912 to 1926)
you will find all the details about the geological and hydrogeological peculiarities of the Lübheen-Jessenitz and Conow salt domes as well as the history of the individual mines.
literature
- Otto Braitsch: Origin and stock of the salt deposits. In: Mineralogy and petrography in individual representations. Springer-Verlag Berlin / Göttingen / Heidelberg, 1962.
- Ernst Fulda : Overview of the salt deposits in Germany. In: Kali magazine . No. 2, published by Wilhelm Knapp in Halle, January 15, 1925.
- Eugen Geinitz: The “Friedrich-Franz” salt mine in Lübenheen. Archive no. Mklbg. f. IV 1263, Wissenschaftl. Schwerin General Library, 1906.
- Günter Pinzke: The salt production in southwest Mecklenburg - geology and development of the deposits; a historical mining survey, part 2: Search, exploration and development of new salt deposits: the potash and rock salt mines Jessenitz, Lübheen and Conow. Magazine DER ANSCHNITT. No. 2 - 3/2012, volume 64; Publisher: German Mining Museum Bochum.
- Richter: Geological passport of the southwest Mecklenburg potash salt deposits. Geological State Institute of the GDR, 1950, LUNG MV archive.
swell
- ↑ German Mining Museum Bochum, research area mining history. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 31, 2013 ; Retrieved January 13, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ History of the Staßfurt Salt. Retrieved March 17, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Author collective: Hundert Jahre Stassfurt Salt Mining, Appendix to the commemorative publication published on the occasion of the centenary of the Staßfurt potash works on the day of the miner in 1952 . Kreuz-Verlag (VOB), Halle (Saale) 1952 (152 pages).
- ↑ stratigraphie.de
- ↑ de.academic.ru
- ↑ fertilizer. Retrieved January 13, 2013 .
- ↑ Hans-Heinz Emons: The Potash Industry - History of a German Industry? (PDF) (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 17, 2013 . ( 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.
- ↑ Leo Loewe: The mining extraction of potassium salts , in: "Germany's potash," Festschrift for X. General German Bergmann day to Eisenach, 1907, p. 5
- ↑ History of the Staßfurt Salt. Retrieved March 17, 2013 .
- ^ Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 13, 2013 . ( 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.
- ^ H. Paxmann: Economic, legal and statistical relationships of the potash industry , in: "Deutschlands Kalibergbau", Festschrift for the X. General German Miners' Days in Eisenach, 1907, p. 22.
- ↑ State Main Archive Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Schwerinsches Bergamt, No. 51–59, Acta concerning the operation of the mine in Lübenheen , pages unnumbered
- ↑ Erich Seidl: Contributions to the morphology and genesis of the Permian salt deposits in Central Germany (= Journal of the German Geological Society . Volume 65 ). 1913, p. 124-150 ( short version ).
- ↑ Jessenitz district. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 10, 2014 ; Retrieved March 17, 2013 .
Web links
- Martin Froben et al .: 20 years of the Stralsund Mining Authority. 1990-2010. Stralsund Mining Authority, accessed on February 16, 2016 .
- More photos of disused potash and rock salt pits in Mecklenburg