Zielitz potash plant
| Zielitz potash plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
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| Mining technology | Short pillar construction | ||
| Funding / year | 12,000,000 t | ||
| Funding / total | > 300,000,000 t of potash salt | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | K + S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH | ||
| Employees | 1,800 (2018) | ||
| Start of operation | 1969 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Potash salt / potash salt | ||
| Potash salt | |||
| Staßfurt | |||
| Mightiness | 7-15 | ||
| Raw material content | 25% | ||
| Potash salt | |||
| Degradation of | Potash salt | ||
| Ronnenberg | |||
| Raw material content | 24% | ||
| Greatest depth | 1300 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 52 ° 18 '0 " N , 11 ° 40' 48" E | ||
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| Location | Farsleber Strasse 1, 39326 Zielitz | ||
| local community | Zielitz | ||
| country | State of Saxony-Anhalt | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
The Zielitz potash plant is a mine for the extraction of potash salts and the associated processing plant near Zielitz in Saxony-Anhalt . It is the largest potash mine in Germany and one of the largest in the world.
history
The history of potash mining near Zielitz began in 1960 with the drilling program to explore the “Calvörde plaice” potash deposit. In 1963 the decision to build the potash mine and only one year took place later, in 1964, the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony and began the first wells on the largest deposit of DDR to sink . About two years later the final depth was reached, which was 806 meters for shaft I and 740 meters for shaft II. In 1968 the VEB Kalibetrieb Zielitz " Ernst Schneller " was founded. The state-owned company was the youngest part of the Kali combine . In 1969, the mine began to extract crude salt and build the underground infrastructure . Potash production began in continuous operation four years later. The annual production in 1989 was about 7.4 million tons. In the same year, the 100 millionth ton of crude salt was mined. Bischofferode was one of the GDR's big foreign exchange brokers, and western fertilizer manufacturers fought for the goods.
After the change in the GDR in 1989/90 , the mine was wound up with the help of the Treuhand. She urged K + S to also take over the East German Kali, and gave her a free hand in closing the eastern pits. At the same time, the state holding promised to secure the monopoly, on top of that there was 1 billion D-Marks as well as loss compensation until 1997. Initially, Zielitzer Kali AG was founded in 1990 , which was taken over by Mitteldeutsche Kali AG a year later against the will of the miners. After the potash mines merged in 1993, Zielitz became part of K + S AG and K + S Kali GmbH in the AG.
Old mine workings have been used as underground landfill since 1995 .
Characteristics
The Zielitz potash plant has 5 shafts. Shafts I and II are designed as double shafts, with shaft I being the delivery shaft and shaft II serving as a material and cableway shaft. To the north ( ⊙ ) are the two weather shafts III and IV (also Ramstedt I and II), also designed as a double shaft system, but without daytime systems. Shaft V (Loitsche) to the northeast ( ⊙ ) of the central system was also planned as a weather shaft and was in the process of sinking, but was closed in 1990 at a depth of 230 m .
In potash Zielitz be in the 2010s annually about 12 million tons promoted (41,000 tons per day) of crude salt, which is about 30 percent of total annual production of the K + S Kali GmbH. This makes the mine one of the largest in the world.
Primarily potassium-containing crude salts, which are used for the production of fertilizers , for industrial applications and for production in the feed and food industry, are funded in Zielitz . Around 2 million tons of salable end products are produced annually from the roughly 12 million tons of crude salt. The export takes place worldwide.
The thickness of the rock and potassium salt seams is on average 7.40 meters, the valuable material content in the raw salt is around 11 percent potassium oxide . The mining area has an area of approximately 61 square kilometers, with it extending about 19 kilometers from southeast to northwest and about six kilometers from southwest to northeast. The mining takes place in depths between 400 and 1300 meters. Mining is carried out in the so-called short pillar construction , so that square piers remain after the dismantling, which support the overburden . The Zielitz potash mine has a total of four shafts, two of which are used exclusively for ventilation .
Total production at the Zielitz potash mine in the mid-2010s was over 300 million tons of crude salt. In 1989 the 100 millionth, 2001 the 200 millionth and 2010 the 300 millionth ton was mined.
The extracted raw salt is further processed in the company's own factory. Around 90 percent of the production volume is transported away by rail, the plant has a connection to the Magdeburg – Wittenberge railway line . The Zielitz station was expanded to four tracks to ensure parallel operation of the Magdeburg S-Bahn and freight traffic. Other modes of transport are roads and inland waterways . The overburden is placed on heaps northeast of the mine. These heaps are popularly called Kalimanjaro because of their white color .
The Zielitz mine has its own industrial power plant . This is used to produce electricity and steam for the surface production and drying systems. The energy source is natural gas . Self-sufficiency with electricity is around 65 percent.
In 2016, the Zielitz potash mine employed around 1,800 people. It is one of the largest and most important employers in the region. Around 120 apprentices are trained at the plant, which corresponds to a training quota of around 7 percent.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Open house at the Zielitz potash plant. www.welt.de, June 3, 2018, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
- ↑ K + S bundles business in K + S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH. www.kpluss.com, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c The Zielitz potash plant - Glückauf! . Accessed February 8, 2016.
- ↑ mdr.de: Interview: Director Dirk Schneider: "The Hunt for White Gold" | MDR.DE. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
- ^ Bischofferode: The trust trauma. MDR documentation, March 4, 2020, accessed June 25, 2020 .
- ↑ mdr.de: Emotional documentary premiere in Bischofferode | MDR.DE. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
- ^ The fight of the potash miners from Bischofferode against the trust. August 26, 2019, accessed June 25, 2020 (German).
- ↑ a b Our history - The Zielitz potash plant . Accessed February 8, 2016.
- ↑ The potash u. Rock salt pits in Germany - 7.5 Zielitz. www.lars-baumgarten.de, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
Web links
- Mineralienatlas Lexikon - Germany / Saxony-Anhalt / Börde, district / Zielitz. www.mineralienatlas.de, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
- Geology of the pre-cenozoic period of the Calvörder plaice