Limburg coal district
The Limburg hard coal district ( Dutch Kempens steenkoolbekken ) is an area in the province of Limburg in Belgium , where hard coal was discovered in 1901 .
Dismantling
The brazier mainly supplied fatty coal , which is particularly suitable for coking . Coke is used to make steel in blast furnaces ; At that time there were many of them in the Belgian province of Liège .
history
Coal mining was already taking place near Liège in the late 12th century. At around the same time, coal was mined near Aachen. The area of today's western Ruhr area followed around 1370. From the late 14th century, considerable amounts of coal were transported by ship. Limburg is separated by the Belgian-Dutch border. Maastricht is the capital of the Dutch province of Limburg ; Liège is the capital of the Liege Province . Both cities are located on the Meuse , about 30 km apart. There was industry in the south of the Liège province; in the rest of the country the clergy and nobility had a longer influence. Population growth, the widespread use of the steam engine and the railroad promoted industrialization and increased fuel requirements. For example, the Iron Rhine railway was opened in 1879 .
First drilling
As early as 1806, two French people, the Castiau brothers from Liège, had searched for coal in Meilegem without success. Even Guillaume Lambert and André Dumont played a role in the discovery of the coal basin. In 1897 Valentin Putsage and Jules Urban had drilled in Lanaken in vain ; the coal limestone found raised hopes. Dumont assumed that the Limburg Basin was a northern bulge of the coal seams that had been found on the Dutch-German border near Kerkrade , north of Aachen. He continued his search. Louis Jourdain suggested drilling in As , Dumont began drilling in Elen on December 16, 1898 . The drill broke a year later at a depth of 878.5 m. The company went bankrupt in 1901. In the night of August 1 to August 2, 1901, a coal seam was found at a depth of 541 m.
In 1951 Belgium was one of the six founding members of the Montan Union . A protracted coal crisis began around 1958 .
In the mid-1960s, the six mines in Kemperland produced 10 million tonnes of coal per year (for comparison: the 36 mines in the French-speaking region (Wallonia) produced about the same amount).
When the Zwartberg mine - the only Flemish mine besides five Walloon ones - was to be closed at the beginning of 1966, miners fired on by "language fighters" attacked the gendarmes with the shout: "Close the Walloon mines first!" (See also Flemish-Walloon conflict ) . The Zwartberg mine was initially closed.
Mines
There were seven coal mines in the Limburg coal region :
- steenkoolmijn van Beringen in Beringen , production 1922 to 1989
- Steenkoolmijn van Eisden in Eisden , production from 1923 to 1987
- steenkoolmijn van Houthalen in Houthalen , production from 1938/39 (merged with Zolder in 1964) until 1992
- Steenkoolmijn van Waterschei ( André Dumont ) in Waterschei , (1924 to 1987)
- steenkoolmijn van Winterslag in Winterslag (1917 to 1988)
- steenkoolmijn van Zolder in Zolder , 1930 to September 30, 1992 (and thus the last closed of the seven)
- Steenkoolmijn van Zwartberg ( Les Liégeois ) in Zwartberg , 1925 to 1966
Headframes
The headframe at Houthalen
Winterslag headframes (the three-legged built in 1963; the other in 1915)
The Genk-Waterschei headframe
The Zolder headframe
The headframe from Beringen
Stones symbolize where the headframe from Zwartberg in Genk stood
Flemish Mining Museum
The Beringer colliery is considered to be the best preserved colliery in Europe. Today there is the Vlaams Mijnmuseum ( German Flemish Mining Museum ), which was founded in 1985 on the initiative of Goddeeris Gilbert, the former director of the Beringer mine. Exhibits from the history of mining can be seen in an underground room. The headframe , heaps , wash houses and other parts of the daytime facilities have either been preserved or have been reconstructed.
Web links
- http://mijnmuseum.be (homepage)
- Aachener Zeitung December 12, 2012: Always new damage: The mining industry catches up with Parkstad
Individual evidence
- ↑ www.planet-wissen.de
- ↑ The time 16/1966: Black gold no longer shines