Caminau kaolin plant
The Caminau kaolin factory is a mining company in Upper Lusatia near Caminau in Saxony . The company, now known as Caminauer Kaolinwerk GmbH , promotes and processes the mineral kaolin , which is used as a raw material for porcelain and paper production.
history
Upper Lusatia north of Bautzen has very rich deposits of lignite , clay and kaolin , which gave rise to lively mining as early as the middle of the 19th century. The kaolin deposits near Caminau were discovered around 1900 by a farmer while drilling a well. A shaft builder from Senftenberg acquired the mining rights and began mining in open-cast mining in 1904 . The mining of the kaolin was initially not carried out on a large scale. The reasons for this were the persistent lack of capital and the consequent frequent changes in ownership.
After the Second World War , the company was expropriated and made public property on the orders of the Soviet occupying forces . The mine now operated as VEB Kaolinwerk Caminau . Over the years, a large socialist company emerged that was constantly modernized and expanded. The annual output of kaolin rose from 15,000 t in 1950 to 135,000 t in 1985. In 1961, the plant received a connecting line with its own transfer station on the newly built Königswartha – Weißkollm railway line . In the 1980s, the company built a modern processing plant .
After the political change in the GDR in 1990 , the Caminau kaolin factory became the property of the Amberg kaolin works .
geology
The kaolin deposit of Caminau is the northernmost near-surface in Upper Lusatia. The kaolin was created autochthonously through weathering processes from the existing Lusatian granodiorite . The deposit extends over an area of 2.5 km². The minable rock has a thickness of 20 to 50 m. The high degree of whiteness of Caminauer Kaolin is due to the subsequent action of humic acid during the formation of lignite in the tertiary period .
literature
- Oberlausitzer Heide- und Teichlandschaft , Series Landscapes in Germany - Values of the German Homeland Volume 67; Böhlau Verlag Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-412-08903-6 ; P. 121f.
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 51 ° 20 ′ 16 " N , 14 ° 20 ′ 34.3" E