Ronnenberg potash plant
| Ronnenberg potash plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
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| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Alkaliwerke Ronnenberg AG / Kali Chemie AG | ||
| Start of operation | 1898 | ||
| End of operation | 1975 | ||
| Successor use | Demolition, residential development | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Potash salt / magnesium salt / rock salt | ||
| Greatest depth | 1050 | ||
| Degradation of | Magnesium salt | ||
| Degradation of | Rock salt | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 52 ° 18 '58.9 " N , 9 ° 38' 55.8" E | ||
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| local community | Ronnenberg | ||
| country | State of Lower Saxony | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
The Ronnenberg potash mine is a former potash mine in Ronnenberg in the Hanover region . For decades, the plant was the determining economic factor in Ronnenberg, and the waste dump shaped the townscape.
geography
The potash plant was located in the area of the Benther salt dome . This stretches around eight kilometers from the Ronnenberg district of Weetzen between Ronnenberg, Benthe , Empelde to the Hanover districts of Badenstedt and Davenstedt .
geology
The salts of the Benther salt dome were deposited from the sea water in the Zechstein Age , 250 to 230 million years ago. The formerly flat layers were tectonically arched up about 160 million years ago to above today's ground level . The potash and rock salts in the upper areas were dissolved by environmental influences, so that today's salt level is about 100 to 150 m below the surface of the earth.
history
Salt was extracted in the area 1100 years ago from springs in the Empelde area that later dried up. However, little attention was paid to this until the construction of the Egestorffshall salt works began in the then independent Badenstedt in the 1830s . It turned out that the salt yield increased by processing brine from boreholes compared to processing surface water.
Predecessor company
In the years around the turn of the century 1900, four shafts of various potash mines were built on the Benther salt dome in what is now the area of the town of Ronnenberg.
Albert shaft
The Alkaliwerke Ronnenberg AG began on March 28, 1898 with the sinking of their Albert shaft on the edge of Ronnenberg. They had high-quality potash salts with a potassium chloride content of 37 to 89 percent. H. encountered. The construction was hindered by several water inrushes, so that the production could not start until December 6, 1905. ▼ The conveyed material was processed in a factory on the factory premises and transported away by rail. The salt was of very good quality and could be sold on the market without processing.
By expanding and taking over the neighboring potash works in Weetzen and Benthe, the output rose to around 225,000 t in 1927.
Herrmann shaft
In the Benthe district, the owners of the salt mining rights changed several times between 1894 and 1901. After five deep boreholes, the Herrmann shaft began to be sunk on April 12, 1899 east of Benthe. ▼ During the construction phase, there were several severe water ingresses that could not be controlled. Starting in 1902, Kaliwerke Benthe AG extracted salt from the lye pumped out of the shaft in the Benthe Saline instead of in the shaft . In 1904, 100 employees produced 15,000 tons of salt. In May 1911 the company was closed due to a lack of profitability. After the First World War, Alkaliwerke Ronnenberg took over the company in 1923 . The Herrmann shaft was used to sink residual liquors from potash processing at the Albert shaft until the 1970s. The mining rights in the northern part of the Benthe district were assigned to the Hansa potash works in the 1930s.
Germany shaft
The Franzburg-Gerden potash drilling company founded in 1898 was renamed the German trade union in 1899 and merged with the Justenberg trade union in 1900 . When drilling up to 1009 m deep, it found possible shaft starting points at various locations in the Linden district .
On December 29, 1904, the Germany trade union began building its Germany shaft in the Weetzen district. ▼ There had been an underground connection to the Albert shaft since 1911 . In 1913 took over alkali plants Ronnenberg the union Germany . From 1971 to 1974 rock salt was extracted again from Schacht Deutschland.
Further potash companies in Ronnenberg
Hansa shaft
In the district Empelde in 1896 that began union Hansa Silberberg with the sinking of the shaft Hansa . Until 1973, this potash plant, which was comparable in terms of workforce, output and shaft depth, competed with the one in Ronnenberg.
Good Hope
To the east of the Benther salt dome, two drillings by the Gute Hoffnung potash drilling company (north of Vörie and 500 m west of Ihme ) remained unsuccessful in 1898 .
Ronnenberg potash plant
The Ronnenberg alkali works were taken over by Kali Chemie AG in 1928 as the Ronnenberg potash works .
The technical modernization, especially in the 1960s, made it possible to increase the output to 840,000 t in 1974, while the number of employees fell to around 400 at the end of the day.
The end
After water ingress had occurred repeatedly in the past, another led to the mine being shut down. When about 7 million m³ of lye penetrated the pit in a short time in the summer of 1975, over 800 building damage, subsidence and several sinkholes occurred in a 25 km² area around Ronnenberg. For safety reasons, the mine building was flooded by relief bores and abandoned at the end of 1975.
Factory track
The plant had a works railway with three transfer tracks at the foot of the spoil dump parallel to the Hanover – Altenbeken railway line . Two steam locomotives built in 1920 are in the inventory of the Association of Traffic Amateurs and Museum Railways in Schönberger Strand . One of the locomotives was used in the Ronnenberg potash plant until 1971, the other until 1975. 1964, built diesel locomotive of the type O & K MB 7 N reached by the plant closure to the work Nienburg Kali-Chemie.
The shaft in Weetzen had a siding to the Weetzen station, the shaft site in Benthe was accessible via a track from Ronnenberg station. Both sidings were dismantled in the 1970s. At the end of the 1990s, the transfer tracks were also dismantled.
Successor use
The small spoil dump at the Germany shaft was removed and relocated to the Ronnenberg dump by truck . In the 1990s, backfill material was extracted from the Ronnenberg dump to fill cavities in the Asse mine . For this purpose, a loading facility was built on the former transfer tracks of the works railway. After the end of this measure, the dump stump remained, which will continue to be drained via a 7 km long brine pipe.
The company buildings were demolished and a residential area was created on the site. Several miners' settlements have been preserved. Administration buildings and director's villas in Ronnenberg and Weetzen are protected as architectural monuments. A permanent exhibition in the Ronnenberg Local History Museum recalls the history of the Ronnenberg potash mining industry .
ecology
Part of the dump is protected as an inland salt station at the Ronnenberg potash plant according to the Habitats Directive .
Web links
- Potash mining in Ronnenberg / Bergmannsverein "Glück Auf von 1908 Ronnenberg". Ronnenberg local history museum, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Joachim Holtz: We are probably too small. In: Die Zeit , No. 33/1975
- ^ Potash mining in Ronnenberg / Bergmannsverein "Glück Auf von 1908 Ronnenberg". Ronnenberg local history museum, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Konrad Boden: Potash mining in the Benther salt dome, in: Peter Hertel u. a. (Ed.): Ronnenberg. Seven Traditions - One City . Ronnenberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-00-030253-4 , pp. 122-134 .
- ↑ Konrad Boden: Potash salt mining in Ronnenberg: How did salt come about? Ronnenberg local history museum, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ A little salt story. Lower Saxony Museum for Potash and Salt Mining, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Empelde and the salt. Lower Saxony Museum for Potash and Salt Mining, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ von Bergwerksdirektor Hilbek, Berlin: About the sinking of the shaft I of the corporation "Alkaliwerke Ronnenberg" to Ronnenberg near Hanover. Editing of the magazine "Glückauf" with the participation of the preparatory committee (ed.): Report on the 8th General German Miners' Day in Dortmund from September 11 to 14, 1901 , 1902, accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ^ A b c d e Konrad Boden: Potash salt mining in Ronnenberg: Historical outline. Ronnenberg local history museum, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Konrad Boden: Potash mining in Ronnenberg: From the Hermann shaft to the Benthe salt works. Ronnenberg local history museum, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ a b The potash and rock salt pits in Germany. (Source: Germany's Potash Mining, Festschrift for the X. General Miners' Days in Eisenach , Berlin 1907, publishing and distribution of the Royal Geological State Institute Berlin N 4, Invalidenstrasse 44.). lars-baumgarten.de, accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ Hansa plant in Empelde. Lower Saxony Museum for Potash and Salt Mining, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Vehicle list of the association. Association of Traffic Amateurs and Museum Railways Hamburg e. V. (VVM) VVM-Museumsbahn-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH, accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ Steam locomotive Bn2t Ronnenberg 2. vvm-museumsbahn.de, accessed on August 11, 2016 .
- ↑ steam locomotive Cn2t Ronnenberg 3. vvm-museumsbahn.de, accessed on 11 August 2016 .
- ↑ O&K 26518. rangierdiesel.de, accessed on March 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Konrad Boden: Potash mining in Ronnenberg: What is still visible from potash mining today? Ronnenberg local history museum, accessed on December 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Landscape framework plan of the Hanover region. Status 2013 (PDF; 16.4 MB) Region Hannover. Environment department. Nature Conservation Team 36.04, 36.05 AG Landscape Framework Plan , pp. 511-514 , accessed on May 13, 2015 .