State minister Beatrix
The Staatsmijn Beatrix is not so far gone in promoting coal mine in Herkenbosch near Roermond in the Netherlands . It is the last mine in the Netherlands before the coal mining stopped. At the same time, a new deposit was to be developed for the first time. Thus, the Staatsmijn Beatrix is only to a limited extent to be counted among the coal mines of South Limburg.
Geological location
To the northeast of the Aachen district or its southwestern continuation in the Netherlands and Belgium there is initially an approximately 20 km wide strip with no minable coal reserves. This is followed by the Wassenberger Horst, whose coal supply was mined by the Sophia Jacoba mine in Hückelhoven until 1997 . This deposit continues in a north-westerly direction and is therefore largely located on Dutch territory, where it is called Peel after a landscape there . The deposits are located at depths of 400 m to approx. 1500 m, which slope to the northwest.
history
In order to ensure the Dutch supply of hard coal also in the future, they looked for other deposits besides those already known around Heerlen and Kerkrade . The coal fields of the Peel were discovered as early as 1907. However, it was not until 1954 that the Dutch state company DSM began building the new mine . The two shafts were placed in the Meinweg area , a narrow, wooded strip of land that was surrounded on three sides by German territory. There were two reasons for this: firstly, the actual shaft system was where the coal seams were in the shallowest depths, and secondly, there were no large settlements in a larger area that could be affected by the mine.
The further plans envisaged connecting the mine underground with the neighboring Sophia Jacoba mine , which at that time was mostly owned by Dutch companies. Since the Meinweg is quite narrow, only about 20% of the licensed mining area was in the Netherlands, the rest is in Germany. The calculated coal reserves in the concession field amount to around 1.2 billion t of hard coal.
The sinking of the shafts was done by modern methods, Beatrix was supposed to be the most modern coal mine in the Netherlands. But the coal crisis began during the expansion work, during which hard coal was replaced by crude oil and natural gas as energy sources. In 1962, after the shafts had been sunk to a depth of approx. 710 m, construction work was stopped.
present
The shafts were not completely filled, but only provided with concrete lids to enable commissioning if the energy demand changed. This would also be possible because the underground facilities were never connected to mines that have since been shut down and are therefore full. Although extensive work would have to be carried out above and below ground in the event of a commissioning, this would be possible with a lead time of approx. Three years.
literature
- Luc Wolters: Staatsmijn Beatrix. Gemiste kans of show? Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2018, ISBN 978-94-6004-384-0
