Hella luck pit

Hella luck pit
General information about the mine
Information about the mining company
Start of operation	circa 1250
End of operation	1945
Successor use	Visitor mine
Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Silver / copper / azurite / bismuth
Greatest depth	240 m
Geographical location
Coordinates	48 ° 39 '20 "  N , 8 ° 42' 20.5"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 39 '20 "  N , 8 ° 42' 20.5"  E
Location Hella-Glück pit
local community	Neubulach
District ( NUTS3 )	Calw
country	State of Baden-Württemberg
Country	Germany

The Hella-Glück mine was a mine for silver , copper and azurite extraction in the Black Forest . Azurite was used as a blue color pigment . Operation began in the late Middle Ages (around 1250) and has continued into modern times. Between 1916 and 1945 the mining industry turned to bismuth . Today the pit is used as a visitor mine .

geology

In the region there are several veins in northwest to southeast direction, which are in the red sandstone and shell limestone . The corridors are made of quartz and barite with pale ores . The main ores are the copper ores azurite and malachite , as well as silver- and bismuth-containing pale ores.

history

Middle Ages 1250 to 1500

The first traces of mining are known from the middle of the 13th century, the bright blue azurite was in great demand for color production. The miners' settlement built near the shafts was raised to the rank of town by the Count of Hohenberg in 1274 . Hardly any documents are available from the following two centuries , but mining continued and four pits were named for the year 1478 (St. Philipp, St. Jakob, Dreikönig and Stollgrube). It is certain that at that time the ore was already being mined at the depth level of the Maria tunnel ( depth : 100 m), which was also the central water solution tunnel of the district.

Modern times 1500 until today

Around 1514 mining is described as dormant, but from 1530 onwards it started again from the Upper Austria and at the same time a mining regulation was issued. From 1534 again under Württemberg rule, Duke Ulrich von Württemberg issued a new mountain freedom just two years later . From 1538 the St. Margarethen Fundgruben shaft was sunk , and from 1551 the upper gallery was put into operation under Duke Christoph von Württemberg . Between 1552 and 1557 the company was idle, only to be resumed afterwards on a much larger scale. A new stamping mill is built to crush the ores and a new smelter is used for metal extraction. To 1560 at least 15 new test tunnels were created . However, all of these attempts were unsuccessful and operations were shut down again from 1563.

Only four years later a new attempt was made, old tunnels were cleared and the former 115 m deep shaft was brought back into operation. All efforts were unsuccessful, however, Duke Christoph had invested 10,000 guilders in the mine in the last 18 years without getting a single one back.

Mining was dormant near Bulach for almost 30 years before another attempt was made in 1596. Here, the Maria tunnel was extended to 914 meters in length and broke through into the Ascension shaft. From there, the tunnel was driven a further 80 meters. The venture was again unsuccessful, no new ore deposits were found, and mining was abandoned in 1608.

Mining was idle for over 100 years, the Thirty Years War and the lack of suitable deposits made further mining impossible. Activities will not start again until 1719. Mountain manager Wolf advertises trades and hires miners. After a few years, operations with a high debt burden have to be stopped without ever having made a profit. In the following 70 years up to 1790, hopeful short operating phases alternated with debt-driven operating breaks. A last busy phase took place from 1822 to 1831 with the excavation of the Wilhelm tunnel, which was driven in the hope of finding ore still worth building below the old quarries . In 1831 the breakthrough took place in the old mines and the realization that all the ore had already been mined, the mine was shut down immediately.

The last mining period took place between 1916 and 1932, as well as from 1937 to 1945. This involved digging for Wismuterz on the old dumps , and setting up a separate processing plant on Azuritweg in Neubulach, which was operational in 1945. The end of the war meant that the plant was never put into operation.

Visitor mine

In 1969, the Neubulacher Bergwerk tunnel community was formed and the visitor mine was opened in 1970. Since 2004, additional, developed tunnels can be visited as part of special tours.

See also

• List of show mines

literature

• Wolfgang Werner, Volker Dennert: Deposits and mining in the Black Forest. Published by the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining, Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg im Breisgau, 2004, ISBN 3-00-014636-9 .

Web links

• Website visitor mine
• Hella Glück Stollen. In: Mineralienatlas Lexikon. Stefan Schorn u. a. 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 150.
2. ↑ M. Maztke: The city and the mining until 1440. In: S. Lorenz, A. Schmauder: Neubulach. A city in silver shine. Pp. 119-146, Tübingen, 2003.
3. ↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 156
4. ↑ Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 159.
5. ↑ U. Meyerdirks: Pingen, heaps, shafts and tunnels - traces of Bullacher mining. In: S. Lorenz, A. Schmauder: Neubulach. A city in silver shine. Pp. 176-200, Tübingen, 2003.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Werner, Dennert, 2004, p. 160.