Wilhelmshall-Ölsburg potash plant
| Wilhelmshall-Ölsburg potash plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
| other names | Wilhelmshall union | ||
| Mining technology | Roof chamber construction | ||
| Rare minerals | Hard salt , sylvinite | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Burbach-Kaliwerke AG / Heldburg Group | ||
| Employees | 150 (in 1920) | ||
| Start of operation | June 1, 1900 | ||
| End of operation | 1933 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Potash salt | ||
| Greatest depth | 800 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 52 ° 15 '19 " N , 10 ° 11' 58" E | ||
|
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| Location | Am Kalischacht 10, 31241 Ilsede | ||
| local community | Ilsede | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Torment | ||
| country | State of Lower Saxony | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
| District | Peine-Salzgitter district; Northern Hanover Potash District | ||
The Wilhelmshall-Ölsburg potash plant is a disused mine near Groß Ilsede in the Peine district in Lower Saxony . From 1900 to 1928 there was mining on potash salts there , in the years 1931 to 1932 attempts were made to extract crude oil with moderate success . Between 1935 and 1936 the mine was drowned unnoticed.
geology
The salt dome of Ölsburg is known of about 200 deposits of its kind in northern Germany. The salt layers from which the deposit arose were formed at the time of the Zechstein around 260 million years ago, when sea water evaporated in a shallow basin. The salt layers were later covered by further deposits and are now at a depth of around 3000 meters. In a weak zone of the basement, the salts have penetrated the slope layers (→ 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.
History and technology
Revelation story
The Wilhelmshall trade union , later a 99% subsidiary of Heldburg AG for mining, mining and other industrial products , successfully carried out deep drilling in the Ilsede area in search of rock salt as early as 1872 . Then the were union on December 9, 1874 Berechtsame from Brunswick State awarded in the size of 1.84 square kilometers. The mine fields were in the districts of Ölsburg, Groß and Klein Ilsede , Gadenstedt , Oberg , Schmedenstedt , Dungelbeck , Woltorf , Berkum , Mölme , Oedelum and Adenstedt . They marched with the authorized persons of the Hannoversche Kaliwerke AG, the Kalibohrgesellschaft Adlum and the iron ore mine Bülten-Adenstedt . From 1880 to 1887 the mine property was leased to Saline Ölsburg AG . The union then carried out a total of 5 deep boreholes in search of a minable potash deposit . While one borehole (IV) did not find anything, the four other boreholes identified potash deposits between 319 and 380 meters and in areas between 717 and 980 meters depth . It was sylvinite with a chlorine potassium content of 46.8% and several layers of hard salt .
Wilhelmshall mine
Based on the satisfactory drilling results the union Wilhelm Hall began on June 1, 1900 a bay near the village Ölsburg abzuteufen . The upper 48 meters of the 5.5 to 6 meter wide shaft were made watertight against the water-bearing mountains with cast iron tubbings . Below that, the shaft stood in relatively dry layers of clay with deposits of anhydrite. This part was lined with bricks and brickwork continued in the salt dome, which has been approached at 203 meters depth. The salt level in the area of the shaft dropped steeply by 78 to 100 gon , so that on 30 shaft meters there was clay and anhydrite on one side in the shaft joint and rock salt on the other side. This geological weak point led to a severe water ingress on August 21, 1901, which completely flooded the shaft in a short time. By this time the shaft had already been completed to a depth of 520 m. Attempts to subsequently expand the shaft step-by-step with segments up to the water-impermeable mountain range failed. Since the costs of the overhaul amounted to a new sinking, Heldburg AG decided to stop the shaft construction in October 1906. At this point in time, a large part of the daytime facilities had already been completed. The Kuxe at the Wilhelmshall union were sold to a consortium of various banks from Hanover , Berlin and Cologne for 1 million marks in the form of a mortgage . The lead manager was the banker Wilhelm Schmitz .
Under the new owners, the work to sump the shaft was resumed and the shaft was completely sealed and drained by 1912. From the hanging lawn bench down to a depth of 258 meters, the shaft finally stood in tubbings. The Wilhelmshall shaft was given a final depth of 770 meters. Civil engineering levels were connected to the shaft at depths of 500, 640, 720 and 750 meters, and an 800-meter level was excavated as a substructure . On January 1, 1914, the Wilhelmshall-Ölsburg potash plant joined the German Potash Indicator and production was officially started on June 1, 1915.
First of all, the First World War struggled with economic difficulties. Between 1918 and 1920, 30,000 to 65,000 tons of rock salt were mined each year. In 1920 a permit was applied for to discharge waste water from the processing of 250 tons of carnallite per day . In the same year the Wilhelmshall union was taken over by the Volkenroda union . The Volkenroda union itself came to the Krügershall potash works in 1922 and thus into the hands of Burbach-Kaliwerke AG.
Since the mine was mostly located in a Braunschweig enclave in the Hanover state, no second shaft was sunk as an independent escape route. The Braunschweig mining law did not make this mandatory.
Shutdown
In 1924 a recession set in on the potash market, so that operations were completely suspended in 1924 and 1925, except for maintenance work. From 1926 to 1927 exploration work was carried out in the sylvinite store on the 750 m level. After a small amount of potash salt was mined in 1928, it was decided on December 12, 1928 to liquidate the Wilhelmshall union, and the assets were transferred to the Burbach-Kaliwerke. Between 1931 and 1932, this attempted to extract oil from the mine by means of horizontal boreholes on the 720 m level. The success remained unsatisfactory and the mining operations were finally shut down in 1933.
In the years that followed, most of the above-ground buildings and facilities were demolished. When the headframe was to be dismantled in December 1936 , workers found that the shaft tube was under water to a depth of 16 meters. Since the shaft was last checked in 1934, the potash works must have drowned unnoticed in 1935 or 1936.
Current condition (2010)
The former colliery site is located in Ölsburg parallel to Am Kalischacht street . In the north, on a longitudinally rectangular plot of land oriented from north to south, there is still a workshop building, in the vicinity of which there is now a silo. The chews and administration are still preserved in the south. The covered shaft is located between the two relics of the potash plant .
The workers' colony consisted of houses on the streets Am Kalischacht , An der Fuhse and Götzenburg .
literature
- Rainer Slotta : Technical monuments in the Federal Republic of Germany - Volume 3: The potash and rock salt industry . German Mining Museum, Bochum 1980, p. 530-536 .
- Otto Bilges et al .: The lights are out - About the historic mining in the Peine district . Doris Bode Verlag, Haltern 1987, ISBN 3-925094-07-5 , p. 226-229 .
Web links
- k + s: The history of the K + S Group , accessed on March 16, 2018.
