Mühlenbach mine (Koblenz)
| Mühlenbach | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| Mining technology | Civil engineering , tunnel construction | ||
| Rare minerals | Siegenite , tetrahedrite , marcasite , galena , pyrite , chrysocolla | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Employees | 250 | ||
| Start of operation | 18th century | ||
| End of operation | May 30, 1960 | ||
| Successor use | Concrete block factory | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Lead , silver , zinc | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 21 '22.2 " N , 7 ° 39' 3.9" E | ||
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| Location | Arenberg | ||
| local community | Koblenz | ||
| ( NUTS3 ) | Koblenz | ||
| country | State of Rhineland-Palatinate | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Wied | ||
The Mühlenbach mine is a former mine in Koblenz , from which lead and silver ore were mined until 1960. It was lying on the Mühlenbach gangway.
history
It is not known exactly when mining began in the mine located about 1 km south of Koblenz-Arenberg . When it was put back into operation on June 3, 1842 after a long period of inactivity, tools and carts that were still full were found in the tunnels , so that operations were probably suddenly stopped during the war at the end of the 18th century. The promotion was due to the difficult dewatering possible only with great effort, therefore, the former operating company sold the pit Mühlebach on April 12, 1867 the corporation for mining, lead and zinc production of Stolberg and Westphalia , seat Aachen (later Stolberger zinc AG for mining and smelting ) for 9,600 thalers. In the following years the company grew; in 1868 the workforce consisted of 89 men and 11 women; it increased over the years to approx. 160 men. A large part of the workforce came from the Westerwald and lived on the company premises. After expanding the pit and purchasing a steam engine to drive the pumps, which had to keep the pit dry, the mine experienced its first heyday, which ended again in 1911, as the considerable investments for the expansion of the dewatering and further exploration work did not seem worthwhile.
After the First World War, attempts were made to resume operations, which in turn failed due to the high investment costs. It was not until 1934 that the mine was reopened and equipped with modern systems in the course of the Third Reich's efforts to become self-sufficient. Single-family houses were built on the “Am Eichbaum” street in Arenberg for the skilled workers who came from the Saar region. In the course of this operating phase, a second shaft, the so-called Oscar shaft, was sunk north of the village of Arenberg, and new shaft towers were built above this and the older Heinrich shaft. During the Second World War, prisoners of war and forced labor were also used in the company (cf. Schäfer, Grube Mühlenbach, pp. 28–29). At the beginning of 1945, the so-called Nieverner tunnel was completed, which on the one hand served the dewatering and also connected the pit with the Lahn valley in order to be able to transport the raw ores for further processing to the processing plant Silberau near Bad Ems . A few months later, operations came to a standstill because the power supply to the mine pumps failed and the mine therefore flooded . It wasn't until early 1947 that operations could resume. In the following years, after the company had also built its own processing plant, the production was 80,000 to 90,000 tons of raw ore and 12,000 to 14,000 tons of concentrate per year. 1958 with approx. 15,200 tons reached the peak. An average of 200 to 250 workers were employed in these years. However, since the prices on the international metal market continued to fall, operations became uneconomical and in 1960 it was discontinued.
In both shafts, the headframe was demolished, the parts of the plant that were still usable, especially machines, were dismantled and used in other systems. A concrete block factory was later located on the former premises around Heinrichschacht in Mühlental. Today some buildings are still preserved there, the oldest of them could be from the 1860s. Some of the buildings, such as B. a former home for workers, are inhabited or used commercially, others (such as the former processing plant) are noticeably falling into disrepair. There are no longer any operating facilities on the site of the Oscar shaft. The Nieverner Stollen (today Fachbacher Stollen) is used to produce drinking water.
literature
- Fritz Herbst: The lead-zinc ore deposits of the Mühlenbach mine in the Ehrenbreitstein-Arenberg area. Bad Ems 1966, 64 pages.
- The pits on the Mühlenbacher Gangzug , in: Rainer Slotta: Technical monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany . 4: The metal ore mining, part II. Bochum 1983, pp. 855-869.
- Helmut M. Schäfer: The Mühlenbach mine near Koblenz-Arenberg. Koblenz 1991, 52 pages.
- Description of the mountain area Wied, Bonn: 1888
- Wilfried Rosenberger & members of the Geol. LA Rhineland-Palatinate Bad Kreuznach: Description of Rhineland-Palatinate mining districts. Volume 4, Bergamtsviertel Koblenz. , 1979 Bad Kreuznach Mining Authority. P. 273. 7.3.6. Schwerspat, p. 303ff.
- R. Bode: The 'Mühlenbach' pit. , 1979, Emser Hefte, Vol. 79, No. 1, p. 31.
- W. Bierther, E. Degens: On the geochemistry of hydrothermal ore veins. I. Manganese, iron and carbon dioxide in the infiltration yard of corridors of the lead-zinc mine Mühlenbach near Ehrenbreitstein / Rhine. , 1956, N.Jb. Geol. Paleont., Abh., 102: pp. 329-80; Stuttgart.
Web links
- Gerhard Schlittgen: The Mühlenbach mine near Arenberg ( Memento from October 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )