Borth Salt Mine

Borth Salt Mine
General information about the mine
The Borth salt mine in 2013
Mining technology	Chamber construction
Funding / year	1,100,000 (2014) t
Information about the mining company
Operating company	European Salt Company (esco)
Employees	320 (2014)
Start of operation	1924
Funded raw materials
Degradation of	Rock salt
Mightiness	200 m
Raw material content	99%
Greatest depth	1000 m
Geographical location
Coordinates	51 ° 36 '51 "  N , 6 ° 32' 58.8"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 36 '51 "  N , 6 ° 32' 58.8"  E
Location of the Borth salt mine
Location	Borth
local community	Rheinberg
District ( NUTS3 )	Wesel
country	State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Country	Germany
District	Ruhr area

The Borth salt mine is a salt mine in Rheinberg - Borth on the border with Wesel-Büderich and Alpen-Menzelen . The rock salt of the Lower Rhine salt pan, which lies at a depth of 500 to almost 1000 m , is extracted by the salt mine. This salt layer is about 200 m thick and extends about 50 km from Rheinberg to Winterswijk in the Netherlands .

history

Borth in 2001, the old double gantry in the background

In 1897 the salt deposit was discovered in Borth during test drillings for coal . In April 1904 a new railway connection was opened from Duisburg via Friemersheim, Rumeln and Trompet in the direction of Moers; In August of the same year, the Lower Rhine line was continued from Moers to Kleve via Rheinberg, Xanten and Kalkar.

In 1906 the Deutsche Solvay-Werke built a soda factory that initially worked with salt from other mining locations and with smaller quantities of brine. A large-scale solution mining had the mining authority is not approved, so that the mining degradation between Borth and Wallach , the double pit gelding I + II drilled was. Because of the heavily water-bearing overburden , the shaft was sunk using the freezing process .

This first mine had to be abandoned after a short time due to a flood in which several miners were killed. An elevation between the districts of Wallach and Borth and the old machine house still bear witness to this today. The “old shaft” was finally backfilled around 1963–64 and the winding tower dismantled.

About two kilometers north of the Wallach I + II facility, the Borth I + II double-shaft facility was built on the local borders of Borth, Menzelen-Ost, Büderich and Wallach. Further difficulties such as water ingress, problems with the transport of the frozen earth, explosions, lightning strikes and the lengthy freezing process meant that the mine could only be put into operation after 16 or 20 years.

The half-timbered double gantry headframe above Shaft II with four-section conveyor system was demolished in 2006 and replaced by a modern solid-walled strut frame with a higher load-bearing capacity and only two-section conveyance. The reinforced concrete headframe above Shaft I from 1964 is still in operation.

Dismantling process

In the mine

The mining method used in Borth is chamber construction . The salt is extracted by drilling and shooting , driven to a crusher with GHH -LF-20- truck loaders and transported to the filling site on conveyor belts .

The blast holes, which are usually 7 meters deep, are drilled with drill jigs according to a specific system at a distance of 1.4 meters and then filled with explosives . The blasted area is about 20 meters wide, seven meters high and seven meters deep. Approx. 2000 tons of rock salt are extracted from each blast. The resulting extraction chambers are up to 600 meters long, 20 meters wide and up to 20 meters high.

Driveways

For Roadway drivages be roadheader used.

Pit climate

In the laundry room

The temperatures at a depth of 700–900 meters are around 35 to 40 degrees Celsius, the humidity is very low due to the salt.

economy

The Borth salt mine belongs to esco , a subsidiary of the K + S Group, and is the largest of its kind in Europe. Up to 2,000,000 tons per year can be extracted over an area of ​​88 km ² . The actual annual production is determined by the rock salt sales.

The Borther rock salt is known for its high purity, which is a prerequisite for the production of table salt. High-purity salt with a content of 98–99% is produced for the chemical and medical industries. In addition, road salt is produced for winter service.

The rock salt was transported on the works railway to the Rhine loading point “An der Momm” in Ossenberg until December 2014 and loaded onto ships there. A large part of the road salt is brought to the destinations by truck. Table salt is packaged in the company's own packaging system and from there it travels to the shops and stores.

literature

• Joachim Huske : The coal mines in the Ruhr area. 3rd edition, self-published by the German Mining Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-24-9 , p. 142.
• * Wilhelm Hermann, Gertrude Hermann: The old mines on the Ruhr. Past and future of a key technology. With a catalog of the "life stories" of 477 mines (series Die Blauen Bücher ). Verlag Langewiesche Nachhaben, Königstein im Taunus, 6th, expanded and updated edition. 2008, ISBN 978-3-7845-6994-9 , p. 293.

Web links

Commons : Borth Salt Mine  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• European Salt Company (operating company)
• Description of this sight on the route of industrial culturehttp: //vorlage.rik.test/~17~11725
• Documentation on the dismantling of the headframe above shaft II
• Geological Service NRW: subsoil and raw materials in the Xanten area, posters and explanations
• Lars Baumgarten: The potash u. Rock salt pits in Germany - 8. Lower Rhine. In: lars-baumgarten.de. Retrieved June 28, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Carsten Dierig: K + S cuts salt production in Borth to 60 percent. In: welt.de. March 18, 2015, accessed June 28, 2016 . 
2. ↑ 50 years of Saline Borth. (No longer available online.) September 18, 2014, archived from the original on June 28, 2016 ; accessed on June 28, 2016 . 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.  
3. ^ Thomas Barthels: Railways on the Lower Rhine. The chronology of railroad events from 1901 to 1945. October 21, 2013, archived from the original on November 11, 2013 ; accessed on June 28, 2016 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Lars Baumgarten: The potash u. Rock salt pits in Germany - 8. Lower Rhine. In: lars-baumgarten.de. Retrieved June 28, 2016 . 
5. ↑ The potash u. Rock salt shafts in Germany - 8.1 Borth (rock salt). In: lars-baumgarten.de. Retrieved June 28, 2016 . 
6. ↑ GHH loader. (No longer available online.) September 17, 2014, archived from the original on February 28, 2015 ; Retrieved September 17, 2014 . 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.