Castor Pit

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Castor Pit
General information about the mine
Pit Castor.1.jpg
View of ore processing in the Castor mine around 1895
Mining technology Civil engineering
Information about the mining company
Start of operation 1853
End of operation 1929
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Lead / zinc / copper / iron / pyrites
Geographical location
Coordinates 50 ° 58 '50 "  N , 7 ° 20' 41.4"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 58 '50 "  N , 7 ° 20' 41.4"  E
Castor Pit (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Castor Pit
Location of the Castor pit
Location Loop
local community Engelskirchen
country State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany
District Bensberg ore district

The pit Castor was a Buntmetallerz pit of Bensberger Erzreviers in the village Kastor of Loope in the municipality angel churches . It consisted of two courses , the Castor course and the Max course.

history

Traces of the terrain of a 600-meter-long Pingenzug above the Castorgang and another 130-meter-long Pingenzug above the Maxgang bear witness to medieval mining that went around here. The first written records are available for the excavation and extension of the upper gallery of the old in 1853. In 1857, work began on driving the deep tunnel and starting the alignment of the corridors from a 40-meter-deep shaft .

Former colliery at the upper gallery of the Castor mine in 1907

The Castor mine was awarded on October 28, 1859 for lead , zinc , copper , spate iron and pebbles to the " Société Anonyme des Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille-Montagne " founded in 1837 by the Belgian banker and industrialist François-Dominique Mosselman . It was an important lead-zinc ore mine in the Engelskirchen area. The Castor passage had a depth of 220 meters. The Max-Gang was sunk to a depth of 270 meters. Zinc ores predominated in the Castor gang, and lead ores in the Max gang.

Operation and facilities

Initially, the first processing plant was built on the heap of the upper gallery , but it no longer met the requirements. Therefore, in 1861, a new processing plant was built in front of the mouth of the deep tunnel. In the 1860s, the well-known Kastor suspension bridge was built across the Agger , over which the mined ores were carried in Loren onto a ramp on the left bank of the Agger. According to the company report, a total of 354 men were employed in 1882 and a total of 265 men in 1883. In March 1889 392 people were employed at the Castor mine. In the 1890s, depletion of the deposit became apparent. The underground operation was stopped in 1906. The processing plant still processed the raw materials that had already been extracted and then went to rest.

Between 1922 and 1929 test work was carried out on the Castor mine, which required the processing plant to be restarted. Then the Bruno II mine in Niederhof had been in operation again since 1924 , and the material to be conveyed was brought to the Castor processing plant by a three-kilometer cable car for further processing. In September 1929 all work was stopped.

Picture gallery

  • Former colliery house of the Castor mine

  • Renovated suspension bridge on the right side of the agger

  • Suspension bridge on the left side of the agger

  • Nature reserve in the former dump area

  • Former sewage pond, now a nature reserve

  • Old heaps of the Castor mine

  • Castor Pit Nature Reserve

literature

  • Rainer Slotta : Technical monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany 4 / I , published by the German Mining Museum Bochum 1983, p. 604 ff. ISBN 3-921533-25-2
  • Wilhelm Kippels: Memories from my life along with legends and stories from my homeland, dedicated to my children, Niederhof, August 5, 1936 , edited and edited by Peter Wicharz, Engelskirchen-Loope 1984
  • Alfred Nehls: All wealth lay in the earth, The history of mining in the Oberbergischer Kreis , Verlag Gronenberg, Gummersbach 1993, ISBN 3-88265-180-6

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Karl-Heinz Lüdenbach: Die Grube Castor and Bruno II , in: Loope, a home book , published by Bürger- und Heimatverein Loope eV, Loope 2012, p. 178 ff. ISBN 978-3-87314-473- 6th
  2. ^ A b Carl-Heinz Kalthoff and Heinz Lehmann: Expert opinion on the mining fields of the Vieille Montagne Altenberg and Silberkaule in the Federal Republic of Germany, Volume 1, Overath 1983, p. 103 ff.
  3. ^ H. Stadler: data collection for a PB-Zn monograph by Berg. Landes , Geographisches Landesamt NRW, Krefeld o. J., p. 24. f.

Web links

Commons : Grube Castor  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files