Breinigerberg ore mine
| Breinigerberg ore mine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
| Mining technology | Underground mining | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | u. a. EBV | ||
| Employees | 700 | ||
| Start of operation | in Roman times | ||
| End of operation | 1883 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Lead and zinc | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 44 '15 " N , 6 ° 14' 19" E | ||
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| Location | Breinigerberg | ||
| local community | Stolberg (Rhineland) | ||
| City region ( NUTS3 ) | Aachen | ||
| country | State of North Rhine-Westphalia | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
The ore mine Breinigerberg was after the ore mine Diepenlinchen the largest and richest ore mine in today Stolberg City area in western North Rhine-Westphalia . They mainly mined zinc ore and lead ore . In the field of the same Erzfeldes already existed during the Roman period ore mining, and in time of copper master was through the operation of small-scale mining mainly calamine been gained.
The large Breinigerberg concession was created in the second quarter of the 19th century through the amalgamation of heavily fragmented mine holdings. The pit field was on both sides of the road leading from Nachtigällchen to the village of Breinigerberg , with the main part of the field lying southeast of this same road. At the beginning of the large-scale operation, the mine belonged to several shareholders, including the Eschweiler Bergwerkverein (or later Eschweiler Gesellschaft ), the Metallurgische Gesellschaft zu Stolberg (later Stolberger Gesellschaft ) and Allianz . In 1853 a processing plant was built, which was quite complex for the time . After the alliance was dissolved, the Breinigerberg mine came completely into the possession of the Eschweiler company in 1856.
The shafts of the Breinigerberg mine were named Bleigrube, Brett, Duhm, Emilie - Maria, Fetis, Gosselin, Haas I and II, Henriette, Hermannstein I and II, Hillmann, Karl, Keller, Kingdom, Lintert, Loenie, Lohkuhl, Quarsack I. II and III, Schlangenberg I and II, Schleicher, Steffens, Toschee I and II as well as Wasserbund. The ore bodies also often had proper names, whereby the names of the ore resources were often identical to the names of the shafts opening them up: Adolphsgang, Bernhardgang, lead mine passage, lead mine floor, nettle passage, Duhmgang, Eickholdnester, ore mine passage, Gosselingang, Haasgang, Heinrich floor, Hermannsteingang, Hillmannsgang, Kingdom passage , Lintertgang, Lohkuhlgang, Macnamaragang, Nagelmackersgang, Quarsackgang, Rainbeauxgang, Schafberggang, Schlüsselgang, Schmittchengang, Schmitzgang, Schnellwindgang, sulfur pebble floor, Toschéestockwerk, Wolfsgrubegang.
The scope of the operation was equal to that of the Diepenlinchen ore mine until 1870 . The annual production amounted to 3,000 to 6,600 t with a workforce of over 700 employees, 200 of them tusks. The mine workings reached a depth of 105 m, so that in contrast to Diepenlinchen, a large part of the mined ores belonged to Galmeiparagenesis. Primary ores only played a greater role in the later years of operation.
Shutdown
During the war years of 1870 and 1871, the mine operation came to a complete standstill, but was restarted in 1881 after a year of preparation. The final closure took place in 1883. The main reasons for the pit closure were problems with the dewatering and the fact that during the war years it was not possible to prepare some of the ore resources still available for mining.
In 1921, the last remnant of the mine was demolished with the Maria shaft building . The Breinigerberg mining field is now a distinct Pingen landscape. The limestone formations that emerge have resulted in the typical limestone grassland . Where the ores are on the surface or where they got there through anthropogenic rearrangement, the area is overgrown with the typical regional calamine flora. After the pit was abandoned, the site was left as an industrial wasteland without recultivation. A wasteland was created - in the vernacular disparagingly called "Balkans". Until the late 1980s, the area was used by the military as a training area. At the beginning of the 1990s, the area around the Schlangenberg was placed under nature protection because of the endemic forms of vegetation occurring here, limestone grasslands and calamine flora . In contrast to all other ore mines near Stolberg, the ore resources of the Breinigerberg mine are exclusively stored in the Devonian Eifel limestone. The shafts are still used by the Stolberg waterworks today.