Washington Pit
| Washington Pit | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 top left: Oppenheim shaft, top center: colliery house, top right: horse stable, bottom: processing |
|||
| other names | Silberkaule | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Start of operation | 1853 | ||
| End of operation | 1892 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Zinc cover / lead gloss | ||
| Degradation of | Galena | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 59 '34.8 " N , 7 ° 12' 56.4" E | ||
|
|||
| Location | Asselborn | ||
| local community | Bergisch Gladbach | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis | ||
| country | State of North Rhine-Westphalia | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Bensberg ore district | ||
The Washington mine is a former non-ferrous metal ore mine in the Bensberg ore district in the village of Silberkaule in the Asselborn district of the city of Bergisch Gladbach . It has always been popularly known as "Silberkaule" .
history
Already in the Middle Ages, perhaps even in Roman times, mining was carried out in the Washington mine field . This is evidenced by an extensive field of penguins that can still be seen today in the western part of the mine site. These pings were the clue for the prospectors who went in search of mineral resources in the 19th century.
The oldest document is from October 6, 1853. It is a so-called find inspection protocol of the mutation Thümmel modo Silberkaule . Awarded was mine field with the name Washington on 28 April 1854 on zinc , lead , copper ores and pyrite . With the award document of March 25, 1855, the mine ownership was extended to all iron ores occurring in the mine field . The finds of pyrites, copper and iron ore remained economically irrelevant for future mining.
When the name was changed to "Consolidated Washington", a consolidation took place on September 4, 1889 with the following pits in the vicinity:
- Emilie mine , first muted for lead and zinc ores on April 27, 1858, awarded on November 8, 1866 for lead, copper, zinc ores and pyrites,
- Fixstern mine , awarded on July 7, 1860 for lead and zinc ores,
- Franklin mine , awarded on November 20, 1866 for lead and zinc ores, for the year 1864 this mine is still listed as a mine from 1854,
- Tetzel mine , awarded on June 1, 1860 for lead and zinc ores “subject to the reservation of the rights of the iron ore mine Eisenkrämer covered by the field awarded”.
The new mining fields were considered courteous , but never fulfilled the expectations that were originally had. Operations ceased altogether in 1892. Experimental work in 1911, 1912 and 1931 was unsuccessful.
Operation and facilities
A wet mechanical processing plant was set up in Lehmbachtal from the start . For the extraction , several tunnels were initially set up in order to get an overview of the deposit . Again and again one came across traces of old mining, the so-called old man , and found that the "old" had even sunk below the valley floor. When choosing the location for a shaft , care was taken to stay outside the area of the old work so as not to come across it while sinking . At the same time, they wanted to get into the area of the main operating points as much as possible. It was a three-chamber machine shaft , consisting of a pumping center, conveying section and driving section, each of which was separated from one another by shaft separators . A boiler house for operating the dewatering steam engine and a horse peg for extraction belonged to this shaft system . The tunnel soles were driven towards the shaft.
In 1873 a new machine shaft, the so-called Oppenheim shaft, was added. Another tunnel was driven on this from the Lehmbachtal in order to get as close as possible to the processing with the conveyed material . On the 60- Lachter -Sohle had in 1877, called the "floor", the main course to 80 m in length and four cross passages open-minded. Over a length of 45 m it had proven a thickness of 10 to 12 m of ores worth building. From 1878 the Oppenheim shaft was sunk down to 70 pools and a section of the “floor” corridor was prepared here. However, there was a reduction in the lead content in the following year. Due to increased mining measures, a record production of 2095 t of ore was achieved in 1879 with a further decline in lead ore. With increasing depth , the ore flow in the “Stockwerk” deposit decreased; difficulties also arose with dewatering .
A new pump was able to keep the new 80-Lachter level water-free on the Oppenheim shaft in 1881. The opening of the transverse passage on the 80-Lachter level in 1883 brought an improvement. Investigations in the rich southern zone on the 70-Lachter level also went well due to the significantly higher silver content of the lead ore. The short phase of an apparent improvement in the outcrops encouraged again in 1885 to sink the Oppenheim shaft down to a projected 90-Lachter bottom. The subsequent digestion work was only partially satisfactory. Since 1886 there have been repeated reports about an expected future restriction of operating activities. The final closure took place in 1892.
After 1931 some of the old washing dumps were transported to the flotation of the Weiß mine for further processing . The Strabag company also transported the remnants of the heaps there in the early 1950s.
literature
- Emil Buff: Description of the Deutz mountain district. Bonn 1882.
- Herbert Stahl (editor), Gerhard Geurts , Herbert Ommer : The legacy of ore. Volume 2, The pits on the Gangerz deposits in the Bensberg ore district . Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-00-014668-7 .
- Herbert Stahl: The mining in the Hardt and the area around Herkenrath. In: 50years of Cologne's NaturFreundehaus Hardt 1960–2010. Bergisch Gladbach 2010.
Individual evidence
- ^ Herbert Stahl (editor), Gerhard Geurts, Herbert Ommer: Das Erbe des Erzes. Volume 2, The pits on the Gangerz deposits in the Bensberg ore district . Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-00-014668-7 , p. 118 f.
- ↑ Herbert Stahl: The legacy of ore. Volume 2, The pits on the Gangerz deposits in the Bensberg ore district. 2004, p. 120 ff.