Siegfried-Giesen potash plant
| Siegfried-Giesen potash plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| other names | Siegfried Union | ||
| Mining technology | Strain funnel construction | ||
| Funding / year | 2 million t | ||
| Rare minerals | Hard salt ( rock salt , sylvin , kieserite ) | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Burbach-Kaliwerke AG / Gumpel Group | ||
| Employees | 150 (underground in 1980) | ||
| Start of operation | 1906 | ||
| End of operation | 1987 | ||
| Successor use | Reserve plant | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Potash salt | ||
| Mightiness | 44 m | ||
| Greatest depth | 1050 m | ||
| Mightiness | 39 m | ||
| Raw material content | up to 94% | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 52 ° 12 '18.3 " N , 9 ° 52' 34.7" E | ||
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| Location | Schachtstrasse, 31180 Giesen | ||
| local community | Giesen, Nordstemmen, Sarstedt | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Hildesheim | ||
| country | State of Lower Saxony | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Northern Hanover Potash District | ||
The former potash plant Siegfried-Giesen of K + S AG promoted potassium salts from the southeastern part of the salt dome of Sarstedt . The mine with attached fertilizer factory was located near the community of Giesen in the Hildesheim district ( Lower Saxony ). The underground part has been kept open as a reserve plant since it was shut down in 1987. K + S is now running planning and approval procedures for the reopening.
geology
The formation of the Sarstedt salt dome
The Sarstedt salt dome is one of around 200 known deposits of this type in northern Germany. The salt layers from which this was created formed at the time of the Zechstein around 260 million years ago when seawater evaporated in a shallow basin. The salt layers were later covered by further deposits and are now at a depth of around 3000 m. From a weak zone in the basement, the salts pierced the slopes of the red sandstone (→ halokinesis ). The salt in the upper part of the salt dome was dissolved and washed away by the groundwater. Hardly soluble anhydrite and clay remained. These formed the so-called gypsum hat over the actual salt deposit.
Geographical location and extent
The salt level of the Sarstedt salt dome, i.e. the upper limit, is between 120 and 150 meters deep. The salt dome extends in an area between the villages of Hasede , Groß Förste , Giesen , Ahrbergen , Sarstedt , Giften , Barnten , Rössing and Emmerke . It used to be assumed that the salt dome continued from Sarstedt to Lehrte near Hanover ( Sarstedt-Sehnde salt dome ). During investigations in the northern area, however, the red sandstone was found, so that there is probably no connection with the deposits of the Friedrichshall and Bergmannssegen-Hugo potash works, among others .
mineralogy
The mass of the salt dome consisted of rock salt . The potash deposits dismantled were mainly hard salt . The crude salt extracted last contained about 19% KCl , 24% MgSO 4 , 52% NaCl and 4% water as well as CaSO 4 , MgCl 2 and clay. The pure potassium content (K 2 O) averaged 12%. There were also deposits with a high proportion of sylvinite , which occasionally could contain up to 94% KCl.
History and technology
Revelation story
The first potash extraction contracts existed in 1896 between the Giesen landowners and the joint stock company for mining and deep drilling in Goslar , later known as Salzdetfurth AG . In 1903 the mining engineer Dziuk had further contracts . The potash mining contracts of Salzdetfurth AG were acquired by the Gumpel bank from Hanover and transferred to the mining company Wodanshall mbH , which was then renamed Siegfried-Gotha . The Berechtsame of Dziuk were Gumpel to the Kaliwerke Giesen GmbH Hannover two companies sold so that the later mine Siegfried with a total area of approximately 1.1 square kilometers (5 Prussian normal fields owned). Bergbaugesellschaft Hannovera mbH also existed to coordinate the activities . The authorized persons from the Glückauf potash works in Sarstedt and the neighboring companies Fürstenhall and Rössing-Barnten moved to the mine fields .
To explore the deposit, the operating companies drilled four shallow wells and one deep well at a depth of 1008 meters. After drilling through the Pleistocene layers , red sandstone and gypsum , the borehole reached rock salt at 146 meters. Potash deposits were drilled between 459 and 502 meters, between 570 and 573 meters and between 754 and 794 meters depth.
Siegfried mine
On December 6, 1906, the sinking of the shaft began. Despite initial difficulties with strong water inflows, the shaft reached its preliminary final depth of 765 m three years later, on November 25, 1909. The Kind Chaudron method was used in the upper area of the shaft tube . The shaft was the first 173 meters with iron tubbing with an internal diameter of 4.10 m expanded, including he stood in masonry and had 4.50 m in diameter. Filling locations were set on the 400, 650 and 750 m level.
From these levels , the previously drilled potash deposits were approached and a sylvinite deposit 52 meters thick and a chlorine potassium content of up to 50% was opened up. In 1910 the shaft was deepened to 803 meters, and a substation was built over a blind shaft at 850 meters underground . In the same year, on October 18, an underground explosives occurred, killing 18 miners .
During the sinking work, the daytime facilities were tackled. In 1909 the Carrier house with a 735 were kW strong tandem composite vapor - Carrier , the boiler house , administration with Chew and workshops completed. This was followed by the construction of a works railway to Harsum, which was to be operated together with the sister plants Rössing-Barnten and Fürstenhall.
The construction of the potassium chloride factory was completed in 1913. Here the crude salts of all three neighboring potash plants of the Gumpel Group , the so-called Siegfried Group , were to be processed into fertilizers. The Elektrizitäts- und Salzaufbereitungswerke Hannover GmbH was established as a joint venture, and in addition to the factories on the Siegfried mine, they also built a steam power plant to supply all three shafts with electrical energy .
Hermann Gumpel at the head of the Siegfried-Gotha union managed to bring together Kaliwerke Giesen GmbH and the mining company Hannovera under one roof with Siegfried-Gotha. After it was founded, the new Siegfried-Giesen union acquired shares in the Rössing-Barnten and Fürstenhall plants, so that the development of a later composite mine became apparent. Construction of underground connections to the two pits began as early as 1913.
When the First World War broke out , production operations could initially be maintained. The workforce of 217 men and 185 prisoners of war even made it possible to take on foreign quotas on the German Potash Indicator . Only a persistent lack of coal and material as well as a dwindling workforce caused the factory operations to cease in 1917, which did not start again until 1920. The standstill period was used to increase the capacity from 300 tons to 750 tons per day. The new mining law of the Weimar Republic made it possible for all previous trade unions of the Siegfried Group to join the newly founded Siegfried-Giesen Bergwerksgesellschaft mbH , which meant that the Fürstenhall and Rössing-Barnten pits lost their legal independence.
The years 1922 to 1925 brought an economic upswing due to the high demand for potash fertilizers. Because of the numerous hard salt outcrops throughout the mine, the construction of a sulphate factory for processing the kieserite-rich salts was inevitable. The plant with a daily output of 40 tons went into operation in 1924. In the same year, the construction of a new, more efficient chloropotassium factory began. The average stake in the German Potash Cartel in 1924 was 107%. To sell the products, a branch canal to the Mittelland Canal with harbor basin was built, which was completed in 1928. In 1926 and 1927, sales fell again, so that there were several breaks in operation.
With the takeover of the Gumpel Group by Burbach-Kaliwerke in 1928, all quotas were transferred to the Siegfried-Giesen potash plant and the other unions were liquidated. During the Great Depression, operations had to be completely shut down from June 22, 1932 to October 14, 1935.
In exchange for taking over the Fürstenhall shaft for military use , the government built extensions for the potash factory in 1940, including a bromine factory and a housing estate. Due to a lack of coal and impairment of shipping traffic on the Mittelland Canal, operations were again closed in the same year. During the Second World War there were repeated disruptions in production operations and in January 1945 the plant was finally shut down. In April 1945 the mine was occupied by Allied troops, but the military government promised to reopen it in May.
Extensive modernization work was carried out in the post-war period. From 1946 to 1949 the hoisting machine was converted to an electric drive and the boiler systems in the factory were expanded. In 1959 the conveyance was changed from frame to vessel conveyance , at the same time the Siegfried shaft received a new headframe with two- rope conveyance . A new bromine production facility was built in the factory area in 1960 and a granulation plant for the production of low-dust fertilizer salts in 1965 . Underground, the Rössing-Barnten and Fürstenhall shafts were also connected to the Siegfried-Giesen mine building on all other levels; the 750 m level was the main production level between the three shafts. In 1967, the deepest conveying level was the 1050 m level, which was reached via a blind shaft with vessel conveyance.
Rössing-Barnten mine
The mining activities in the area of the later Rössing-Barnten potash plant began almost at the same time as those in the Siegfried field. A lawyer Mußmann signed the first contracts in 1902. Without having carried out exploration work himself, he left his rights to the Rössing-Barnten potash drilling company , which was run by the manor owner Dr. Max Schoeller , was headed by director Oskar Klauss from Berlin and by the mining engineer Lange . Investors were the companies SH Oppenheimer , Max Marcus & Co. and Hermann Schüler from Bochum as well as the Magdeburg private bank .
From 1905 the company carried out a total of 15 shallow boreholes and one deep borehole on Giesener Berg near the villages of Rössing and Barnten. Despite the initial hindrance from gravel and tough clay layers, the extent of the gypsum hat over the salt deposit could be determined. The starting point for the deep drilling at Barnten was determined by a geological report by Professor Wilhelm Hoyer . In 1906, the borehole identified potash deposits worth building down to a depth of 903 meters, including hard salt with a maximum KCl content of 52%.
In the meantime, Hermann Gumpel managed to take over the company and quickly converted it into the Rössing-Barnten mbH mining company . As is usual in the Gumpel Group, the Rössing-Barnten Kalibergwerk GmbH was set up as the supporting organization on March 30, 1907 .
In November 1911, the Rössing-Barnten shaft began to be sunk at the starting point of the deep borehole. The Tiefbau und Kälteindustrie AG (formerly Gebhardt & König , Nordhausen ) was responsible for carrying out the work until the salt dome was reached . This goal was achieved on June 20, 1913. Shortly beforehand, the Rössing-Barnten mining company was converted into a union. This only succeeded through the legal trick of converting a “dead” union from Olpe . By the outbreak of the First World War, the shaft had been completed to its final depth of 775 meters. The first jig work has also already been carried out on the 500 m level. The 600 m, 750 m and the 850 m level were also used on other conveyor levels. Since the shaft fittings were missing and there was only a temporary conveyor that was only in January 1916 promotion to be added. Due to the war, the completion of many facilities was delayed, e.g. B. also the shaft hall. The extracted and ground crude salt was transported to Siegfried for further processing. At this point in time, the Rössing-Barnten potash salts were of the best quality within the Siegfried Group. In the first few years after the end of the First World War, too, a lack of material hampered the further expansion of the mine, including the driving of a connecting route to the Siegfried-Giesen plant. Both works had concluded an agreement according to which the other shaft should serve as a second exit according to the mining regulations.
The difficult economic situation at the beginning of the 1920s forced the company to cease operations temporarily. The focus of the underground work was on completing the 2,500 meter long route to Siegfried, which finally took place on November 26, 1923. In the meantime, the daytime facilities and conveyor systems were also completed. In the period that followed, however, all the salts extracted from the Rössing-Barnten mine were transported underground to the Siegfried mine by means of a mine railway . There were more breakthroughs after Giesen on the remaining soles. With the transfer of the Gumpel Group to the Burbach-Kaliwerke, the Rössing-Barnten union was finally dissolved on December 12, 1928 and the mine was attached to the Siegfried-Giesen potash plant for ventilation, cable travel and material transport.
Fürstenhall mine
The formerly independent Fürstenhall potash plant was also under the influence of the Gumpel Group from the start. The first potash mining contracts with the towns of Ahrbergen, Groß Förste and Groß Giesen were once again made by the mining engineer Dziuk. There were also other authorized persons from the Emmerke union . In order to overturn the Hanoverian mining law, Hermann Gumpel again resorted to a Gotha trade union called Fürstenhall zu Thal , which took over all mining fields with a total area of 7.8 km² on October 26, 1906. The Fürstenhall Bergwerksgesellschaft was founded as the operating company on October 22, 1906 .
Good salt outcrops were expected from the drilling results of the neighboring Sarstedt potash works and the salt dome was proven by several shallow drillings in the gypsum cap. Two deep boreholes, one of which was intended to be used to explore the shaft area, finally showed a total of three potash deposits at 273 meters, 331 meters and 732 meters depth. Among these, the well-known hard salt deposit was opened up, which was 12 meters thick and contained an average of 22% potassium chloride.
Sinking of the Fürstenhall shaft south of Ahrbergen began on February 5, 1908. From the beginning, a connection with the Siegfried shaft, only 1,300 meters away, was planned. Since there was considerable water flow even when the shaft was shallow, the Fürstenhall union again resorted to the Kind-Chaudron shaft drilling method . The drilling was stopped at a depth of 168 meters and the watertight cast iron manhole lining was cemented. The shaft was then further sunk in the conventional manner. Gases were encountered at 200 meters which made it necessary to stop the work for a short time. In 1912 the shaft was finally 400 meters deep and on July 27, 1913 the final depth of 775 meters was completed. The shaft last had a diameter of 4.5 meters.
The 400-, 475-, 550- and 650-m-levels were driven from the shaft as extraction levels . The connection to the Siegfried shaft was established from the 650 m level. An agreement was signed with the Glückauf mine, according to which the Fürstenhall shaft should serve as its second mobile exit, as the Sarstedt works lacked the capital for another shaft. The breakthrough between the two pits took place on the 550 m level.
The mine was officially opened on Fürstenhall in February 1914. The first potash salts had already been obtained from the device in December 1910. A shaft hall with headframe, hoisting machine building, raw salt mill with two grinding systems and loading, social building and buildings for the infrastructure and administration were built above ground. The potash plant was connected to the mine connection railway to Harsum, which was operated jointly with Siegfried and Rössing-Barnten. The outbreak of the First World War led to the resumption of production for a short time, and a participation quota in the German Potash Certificate was granted just in time. During the war, Siegfried mined in the Fürstenhall field on a small scale. After the end of the war, operations resumed in 1919, but had to be deferred again on March 15, 1921. After 1923 no more underground work was carried out, the quota was transferred to other Gumpel works, especially Siegfried. On December 12, 1928, the Fürstenhall union was dissolved and ownership was transferred to the Burbach Group. Due to the connection to Siegfried, the Fürstenhall shaft served from then on as an extending weather shaft and was referred to as the Siegfried-Giesen potash mine, Fürstenhall mine .
The existing mine workings were leased to the German Wehrmacht in 1935 , which set up an underground army ammunition facility there. To this end, part of Siegfried's workforce was assigned to Fürstenhall. In order to create space, salts were to be moved from Fürstenhall to Sarstedt. Since the shaft could never be completely sealed, repairs had to be carried out more frequently and a caustic container had to be set up at a depth of 200 meters. In April 1945, Fürstenhall was occupied by Allied troops and only returned to the Siegfried-Giesen potash plant in 1947. In 1954, another connection was created on the 550 m level. According to its use as weather and chute became Prince Hall in 1967 robbed and the headframe replaced with an auxiliary propulsion system with fold shaft platforms.
History of the potash works under the Kali und Salz AG 1970 to 1987
On July 1, 1970, the Burbach-Kaliwerke AG brought their entire mine holdings into the Kali und Salz GmbH, which was founded together with Wintershall AG and Salzdetfurth AG. The majority of the West German potash industry was thus united under one roof and a rationalization process also started in the Siegfried-Giesen plant. From 1971 onwards, the rope journey took place centrally on the Siegfried mine. The Rössing-Barnten and Fürstenhall shafts were only used for material transport and ventilation . In 1974 a delivery rate of 2 million tons was exceeded. In 1975, in the Rössing-Barnten shaft, driving in the shaft was converted to single-basket operation with a counterweight. From 1976 the production of the mine was reduced. The extraction was concentrated between the 850 m and 1050 m levels. For this purpose, several partial levels were driven from a spiral section and expanded downwards to form funnels (bridge funnel construction). The construction height could reach 200 meters. Railless vehicles with diesel drive were used to a greater extent. The raw salt was conveyed from the 1050 m level to the 750 m level via a blind shaft with 15-tonne containers. From here it was transferred to the shaft conveyance in the Siegfried shaft via an intermediate bunker and belt conveyor . A part of the factory residues were returned through a downcomer pipe in the shaft to the 400 m level, and from there with shovels, ribbons or cart as offset introduced in the empty cavities degradation.
In 1983 the factory stopped manufacturing high-percentage potassium chlorine products in favor of fertilizers containing magnesium sulphate. In the same year, an underground connection to the disused Glückauf-Sarstedt potash plant was opened, which Kali und Salz GmbH had taken over from Kali Chemie in 1981 to expand Siegfried-Giesen. However, mining has not resumed in this field.
In the mid-1980s, the surface systems of the Rössing-Barnten mine were dismantled, the shaft was sunk down to the 1050 m level and equipped with a concrete porch column. The shaft only took over the function of the main weather intake shaft.
On September 30, 1987, the mine was scheduled to be shut down. After a mine fire in July 1987, the funding was brought forward.
After the shutdown
In the following years up to 1999, offset work was carried out. The Glückauf-Sarstedt mine was dismantled in 1988, the Siegfried system and the factories in 2000. Only the Fürstenhall mine is available for necessary inspection visits. The mine building is looked after from a base on the former pit III of the disused Salzdetfurth potash plant .
On December 9, 2010, various local newspapers reported that the last mine operator K + S was considering restarting the potash plant. Between the 1050 m level and a theoretical construction limit at 1500 m depth and in the still largely unscratched Glückauf-Sarstedt field, there are still large stocks of hard salts. Products rich in magnesium sulphate are in high demand on the market today. At the beginning of 2011, a feasibility study to reactivate the plant was started, and the start of operations is planned for 2018. This date correlates with the planned closure of the Sigmundshall potash plant . On June 13, 2012, K + S announced that a positive result of the economic and technical preliminary investigation now available leads to the preparation of corresponding permit applications.
Preparing to reopen
In February 2015, K + S submitted the application to reopen the mine; the application documents were publicly available in March / April 2015 and were available on the Internet. There were objections to the reopening application from the population and public bodies, which were discussed at a public hearing in November 2015. Public criticism focused in particular on the planned new construction of a potash dump.
The plan approval decision was issued at the beginning of 2019 after all questions and objections had been clarified as part of the plan approval procedure.
Day systems
The main Siegfried-Giesen mine is located about 1.5 km north of Groß Giesen on Schachtstrasse . Only a few former factory buildings have existed since 2000, such as the chew and administration building from the early days of the potash factory. The most striking legacy of potash mining is the residue dump of the former factory, which can be seen from afar. The former settlement of the miners in the west of the colliery area is still inhabited today.
There are almost no remains of the Rössing-Barnten shaft, which was about 1 km east of Barnten between the village and the Siegfried shaft ( Kaliwerk road ). The shaft, which is still open, is located under a shed that can be moved to the side for shaft work on rails.
The Fürstenhall mine on the street of the same name on the southern edge of Ahrbergen is best preserved. The shaft hall with the access facility and the former raw salt mill are located in a three-part building complex. A diffuser protrudes from the roof of the building . To the southwest, at right angles to the shaft building, there is still the hoisting machine house of the original hoisting facility. It was converted into a residential building. In 2014 a new hoist winch was installed in preparation for the planned restart.
literature
- Rainer Slotta : Technical monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany . Volume 3: The Potash and Rock Salt Industry. In: Publications from the German Mining Museum . No. 18 . German Mining Museum, Bochum 1980, ISBN 3-921533-16-3 , p. 441-473 .
- Georg Thomas: Good luck in Giesen? , In: Niedersächsische Wirtschaft 09/2014 pp. 22-23 ISSN 0341-1982
Web links
- Joyride through the belly of the earth. Retrieved August 11, 2010 .
- Approval procedure for the Siegfried-Giesen reserve mine. K + S Kali GmbH, accessed on August 7, 2014 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Thomas Reuter: The shafts of potash mining in Germany . In: Stadtverwaltung Sondershausen (ed.): SONDERSHÄUSER HEFTE on the history of the potash industry . No. 13 . City administration Sondershausen, Department of Culture, Sondershausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811062-3-7 , p. 170 .
- ↑ Excerpts from the Sarstedt police chronicle: Storms, floods and explosions in the potash shaft. Retrieved August 11, 2010 .
- ↑ EXPERIENCE GROWTH - The history of the K + S Group 1968–1989. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 11, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 168
- ^ Schaumburger Nachrichten . December 9, 2010
- ^ Hannoversche Allgemeine: K + S is considering opening the old mine. Retrieved March 15, 2011 .
- ↑ Company press portal: legal approval examination of the resumption of potash production is being prepared. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 18, 2012 ; Retrieved June 13, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Special page of the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology on the plan approval procedure, http://www.lbeg.niedersachsen.de/bergbau/genehmigungsverfahren/aktuelle_planfeststellungsverfahren/planfeststellungsverfahren-fuer-die- wiederinbetriebnahme-des- bergwerks-siegfried-giesen-eingeletzt- 131886 .html
- ↑ Press release of the State Office for Mining, Energy and Geology from November 5, 2015, online at [1]
- ↑ BUND district group Hildesheim: No new potash pile - new potash plant in the Hildesheim district must comply with environmental standards, January 29, 2014, online at BUND demands: No new potash pile - new potash mine in the Hildesheim district must comply with environmental standards
- ↑ Green light for the Siegfried mine: Lower Saxony approves K + S recommissioning. www.hna.de, February 2, 2019, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
- ↑ Siegfried-Giesen reserve mine: new passenger winch installed in the Fürstenhall shaft. K + S, January 31, 2014, accessed on February 19, 2016 .
