St. Urban Pit
| St. Urban Pit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
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| Mining technology | Bench construction , roof construction | ||
| Funding / year | up to 2,200 t | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Union , Treasury | ||
| Employees | up to 52 (1733–1742) | ||
| Start of operation | 1692 | ||
| End of operation | 1800 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Lead luster / copper pebbles | ||
| Degradation of | Copper pebbles | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 51 ° 49 '57 " N , 10 ° 23' 52" E | ||
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| local community | Clausthal-Zellerfeld | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Goslar | ||
| country | State of Lower Saxony | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Upper Harz Gangerzrevier, Festenburg-Schulenberg area | ||
The St. Urban mine was a silver and copper mine in the Upper Harz Gangerzrevier . It was north of the road from Oker to Clausthal-Zellerfeld ( L 517 ) near the residential buildings in the Oberschulenberg district (mountain and university town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld).
The mine was the most westerly on the high school Berger Erzmittel and mark distinctive from the east to the more famous pit Wheel of Fortune .
geology
The St. Urban mine built on the Bockswieser Gangzug (formerly also called Bockswiese- Festenburg - Schulenberger Gangzug ), a hydrothermal corridor structure in the north-western Upper Harz . The lode was in the range Oberschulenberg a sweeping m length of about 600 and up to a depth of 250 m workable with sulphide, silver-containing lead - and copper minerals mineralized. The ore was located in an exfoliating zone and was formed by the Schulenberg main corridor in the hanging wall and the new corridor in the horizontal wall. After an approximately 1000 m long deadening zone in the east, another ore duct follows in Mittelschulenberg (→ Juliane Sophia mine ).
History and technology
Predecessor mining
There was probably an open-cast mine already in the Middle Ages on the outcrop of the Schulenberg main corridor near the later St. Urban mine. In the period from 1532 to 1592 there was already profitable mining in Oberschulenberg with the mines of St. Anna on the Schulenberge and the Immortal Gift of God and Reiche Society on the Schulenberge , which was initially operated by private tenants. This early ore mining came to a standstill around 1600. Most of the ore reserves had been mined down to the bottom of the valley, which was a little deeper, and a deep tunnel to dissolve water would have had to be driven through the solid rock from afar with just a mallet and iron .
Operation of the St. Urban mine from 1692 to 1800
From 1690 mining was reorganized in Oberschulenberg in length fields between 161 m and 323 m in extent. The pits were managed by the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel state (Communion-Oberharz) itself. The St. Urban mine field in the size of a treasure trove and three dimensions was awarded on March 13, 1692. The depth School Berger studs as water drainage gallery to already to the limit of the future mine workings ascended have been and was repaired. In 1699 a water art was built to raise the pit water .
From 1700 to 1708 only small and fluctuating ore quantities were mined and mined by a small workforce (approx. 12 men) . From 1710 the weekly production was 20-30 tons and up to 33 miners were employed. The deep Schulenberg tunnel was driven further. In 1711 the shaft was 85 meters deep. In the years 1712 to 1715 two thalers per kux and quarter were paid in yield . While the mining was rapidly deteriorating, production and the workforce decreased in the years 1716 to 1727 (15 tons / week, 23 men).
The most important years for the St. Urban mine were from 1728 to 1744: the exploitation payments were made in the amount of up to 10 thalers per Kux. 52 workers mined up to 29 tons of ore per week.
The production shaft reached its final depth of 253 meters in 1746. However, no recoverable ore more were found in this depth, so that the promotion went back and reducing the average 1,760 soles was relocated. The deeper burrows were under water.
From 1769 to 1790 only five miners were employed, the extraction was suspended. In the years 1790 to 1792, on the other hand, the largest amount of ore up to now of up to 2200 tons per year was mined and 45 men were again invested. After that, the production fell steadily again and in the last years of operation was only 200 tons / year. In 1800 the St. Urban mine was finally closed.
From 1800 to 1814 ore remnants were sporadically mined in the St. Urban mine above the Tiefen-Schulenberger-Stollen-Sole in order to employ miners from other Upper Harz mines when there were bottlenecks.
Overview of the shafts, tunnels and day openings
The St. Urban pit had a water retention or art shaft up to the Tiefen Schulenberg tunnel and a production shaft (= driving shaft ) 253 m deep. An assignment of which of the shafts listed below had which function has not been recorded.
| Surname | Greatest depth | length | Beginning | The End | Geographical location | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Urban I shaft | 1803 | 51 ° 49 ′ 57 "N, 10 ° 23 ′ 52" E | ||||
| St. Urban II shaft | 51 ° 49 ′ 57 "N, 10 ° 23 ′ 55" E | |||||
| Deep Schulenberg tunnel | 2,900 m | 51 ° 49 ′ 33 "N, 10 ° 25 ′ 25" E | Water solution tunnel, construction period: before 1600 and from 1710. |
In the St. Urban field there was still the mouth hole of the Festenburger tunnel , which was probably started before 1569 and was driven further in 1710, and which served to dissolve water in the Festenburger pits further west.
Current condition (2011)
A footpath by the Oberschulenberger houses leads to an exhibited perforated stone from the wheel of fortune. Directly behind it is a pinge that marks one of the shafts. The perforated stone itself used to be on the divider between St. Urban and the Wheel of Fortune. A few meters east of the exhibition space is a medieval opencast mine on the outcrop of the Schulenberg main course. The open pit follows the painting and collapse of the former filling of the duct.
In contrast to the heaps of the neighboring pits Fortune Wheel and Yellow Lily , the spoil heaps of the St. Urban pit are heavily overgrown and difficult to see.
The Oberschulenberger Zechenhaus served the miners as a social and administrative building and is not far from the Oberschulenberg hiking car park near the road to Zellerfeld. It was built in 1733 to replace an older building that was destroyed by flooding.
literature
- Christoph Bartels : From the early modern mining industry to the mining industry . German Mining Museum, Bochum 1992, ISBN 3-921533-53-8 .
- Torsten Schröpfer: Treasure trove: Interesting facts about the West Harz mining and metallurgy . 1st edition. Pieper, Clausthal-Zellerfeld 2000, ISBN 3-923605-08-0 .
- Rainer Slotta : Technical monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany - Volume 5, Part 1: The iron ore mining . German Mining Museum, Bochum 1986.
- Dieter Stoppel: Course map of the Upper Harz . Federal Institute for Geosciences and Raw Materials, 1981, ISSN 0540-679X .