Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld opencast mine

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Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld opencast mine
General information about the mine
Mining technology Open pit mine on 17.936 km²
Overburden 423.1 million t
Information about the mining company
Start of operation 1976
End of operation 1993
Successor use Replenishment to the Werbeliner See , Grabschützer See , Zwochauer See , Schladitzer See , several small lakes
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Brown coal, gravel sand
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 28 ′ 41 ″  N , 12 ° 18 ′ 28 ″  E Coordinates: 51 ° 28 ′ 41 ″  N , 12 ° 18 ′ 28 ″  E
Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld opencast mine (Saxony)
Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld opencast mine
Location Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld opencast mine
local community Rackwitz , Schkeuditz , Wiedemar , Delitzsch
District ( NUTS3 ) North Saxony
country Free State of Saxony
Country Germany
District Central German lignite district

The opencast mine Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld was an opencast mine consisting of two mining fields in the central German lignite area for the extraction of lignite south of Delitzsch and north of Leipzig . Originally, five open-cast mines were planned in the Delitzsch area. Due to the economic change with the German reunification in 1989/90, however, these plans were not carried out and the two opencast mines were shut down prematurely.

Geographical location

The former open-cast mine is located in the Leipzig lowland bay between Delitzsch in the north and Leipzig in the south. The Delitzsch Südwest mining field was, as the name suggests, southwest of Delitzsch. To the south-east of this adjoining was the Breitenfeld mining field , which is named after today's Leipzig district of Breitenfeld . The course of the Lobers river was relocated by opening up the opencast mine.

The former opencast mine Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld with its two former mining fields and today several open-cast mining holes is located in the Free State of Saxony ( district of Northern Saxony ). After the renaturation of the area, the Werbeliner , Grabschützer and Zwochauer See lakes were built on the area of ​​the former Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine . The Schladitzer See was created in the area of ​​the former Breitenfeld opencast mine .

history

Prehistory and planning

Before lignite mining north of Leipzig began in the 1970s, the poorly forested region in the Leipzig lowland bay was more of an agricultural area. The largest river in the area is the Lober, which flows in a northerly direction and flows into the Mulde . Before open-cast mines in the northern Leipzig foreland could begin, extensive preparations had to be made. a. the drainage of the soil. This began in 1975 for the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine and in 1981 for the Breitenfeld opencast mine. In 1986, an 11 kilometer long infiltration system was put into operation to feed the aquifers under the city of Leipzig.

The opening of opencast mines in the Delitzsch area was intended to develop the Bitterfeld upper seam and parts of the Gröbers and Bruckdorf seams southwest of Delitzsch . In this area, the Bitterfeld seam consists of an upper and lower bank that are 1.5 to 6 meters thick. The staggered opening of the following five opencast mines in the Delitzsch area was planned with a duration from 1980 to 2050:

  • Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine (exposed in 1976)
  • Breitenfeld opencast mine (exposed in 1982)
  • Delitzsch-Süd opencast mine
  • Delitzsch-Nordwest opencast mine
  • Hatzfeld opencast mine (south of Landsberg , planned exploration: 1990)

The production figures should reach an annual volume of 25 million tons of lignite from 2020. The mining depth in the Delitzsch-Nordwest opencast mine would have been up to 60 meters, and in the Breitenfeld opencast mine up to 150 meters. The coal extracted from the opencast mines was intended for the supply of the chemical industry in the Halle / Merseburg and Bitterfeld areas. In addition, a power plant to generate electricity from the Delitzsch coal was planned in the town of Beerendorf , but its construction was postponed in the 1980s.

The economic change accompanying the German reunification in 1989/90 led to a drastic decline in the demand for lignite, which resulted in the early closure of the already opened open-cast mines Delitzsch-Südwest and Breitenfeld by 1993. Thus, the opening of the Hatzfeld opencast mine south of Landsberg or the Delitzsch-Süd and Delitzsch-Nordwest opencast mines, which was planned in 1990, did not take place . The originally planned mining area would have become one of the largest in the GDR at 19,000 hectares . This area is comparable to the Baltic island of Fehmarn in Schleswig-Holstein.

Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine

View over the southwest opencast mine under the conveyor bridge

The preparatory measures for the first opencast mine in the Delitzsch area with the name "Delitzsch-Südwest" began in 1975 with the drainage of the mining field. The lowering of the groundwater was achieved through a system of filter wells and the closure of the inflows. The Gienickenbach between Zwochau and Lissa, which runs through the planned mining field, had to be relocated or expanded over a length of 3.5 kilometers.

The excavation began in April 1976 with the bucket chain excavator ERs 560-282 south of the city of Delitzsch. In the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine, which was designed as a conveyor bridge mine, the Bitterfeld upper seam was mined. The coal mined served to secure the supply of steam coal to large customers. These included the chemical combines Buna and Leuna as well as the power plants in the Bitterfeld / Graefenhainichen area and the “Elbe” power plant in Vockerode. In addition, the briquette factory in Holzweißig and numerous small customers were supplied with briquetting coal.

In the first few years, the overburden was removed in the train operation and most of it was dumped with the 1055 spreader in the remaining hole of the closed opencast mine Freiheit II near Roitzsch . Since September 1977 a second bucket chain excavator with the designation E 1200-549 has been in service. Both excavators now jointly prepared the working area for the overburden conveyor bridge AFB F34-23, which was dismantled from March 1, 1978 in the Sedlitz opencast mine in Lusatia , which is now being closed . Until it was commissioned in 1979/80, the overburden was transported by train to the dumps of the former open-cast mines Freiheit II and Freiheit III, 15 kilometers away. Then the overburden was dumped together with the excavator SRs 1200-1401 and the bucket chain swing excavator Es 3150-1297 in the already charred part of the opencast mine. This structure can still be seen today in the area of ​​the Grabschützer See. The two bucket wheel excavators SRs 240-1518 and -1520 and the bucket chain excavators ERs 500-298 and -311 took over the coal extraction. On December 3, 1979, the first coal train left the mine.

The progressive expansion of the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine counterclockwise towards the south also resulted in the relocation of several localities and their subsequent devastation and over-dredging. The first place was Kattersnaundorf in 1981, most of whose inhabitants found a new home in Delitzsch. In 1985, Grabsütz was relocated and dredged over. The economic and political change accompanying the German reunification in 1989/90 led to a drastic decline in the demand for lignite, which resulted in the early closure of the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine by 1993. While the planned resettlement and devastation of Wolteritz was no longer carried out, the demolition of the neighboring town of Werbelin, which had been relocated in 1990/91, was carried out in 1992 despite massive protests, but it was no longer dredged. When operations ceased in 1993, the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine was not even 50 percent charred. Due to the abrupt end of lignite mining south of Delitzsch, the places Lemsel, Brodenaundorf and Brodau, which were in the planned mining field, were retained.

Breitenfeld opencast mine

At the same time as mining in the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine, drainage began in 1981 and in 1982 the opening of the Breitenfeld opencast mine in the southeast. This led to the drying up of the natural source of Lobers near Göbschelwitz . In contrast to the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine, in the Breitenfeld opencast mine, in addition to the Bitterfeld upper seam, the Gröbers seam below, which reached up to 130 meters underground, was to be made usable. The open pit mine in Breitenfeld was to become a “superlative open pit mine”. It was planned for a term of 30 years. During this time he would have mined coal, which was intended for the chemical combines Buna and Leuna as well as for processing plants and power plants in the Bitterfeld area, to the northern edge of Leipzig. This would have made it necessary to relocate the A14 . However, the re-routing of trunk road 184 near Rackwitz and the relocation of the Lobers between Zschortau and Rackwitz were carried out.

The open-cast mine in Breitenfeld was opened up on September 1, 1982 by the E 1200-549 bucket chain excavator at the northwest corner of the mining field. It took place around the Wolteritz pivot point in three overburden cuts. The overburden was transported by train to the dumps in the Delitzsch-Südwest, Köckern and Goitzsche opencast mines until 1988 . Then the conveyor belt was switched to.

Coal mining began in the Breitenfeld open-cast mine in 1986. The ERs 560-296 bucket chain excavator was used for this purpose. From 1987/88 this was done by the two excavators SRs 320-1546 and ERs 710-363, built especially for Breitenfeld, as well as three belt trailers. In 1989 the large equipment association, consisting of the bucket wheel excavator SRs 6300-1550 and the stacker ARs-B 15000-1116, which were connected via a conveyor belt, set new standards in the history of opencast mining. His paddle wheel, 17 meters in diameter, reached a cutting height of 50 meters. With an effective daily output of 200,000 cubic meters of overburden and a service weight of 9,000 tons, it was one of the largest and most powerful excavators in the world at the time.

Most of the agricultural areas in the area of ​​the Breitenfeld open-cast mine were affected by the over-dredging. The first settlement that was devastated and dredged over from 1985 was Lössen with the 800 year old Buschnau Church between Lössen and Schladitz with its cemetery. Between 1986 and 1990 Schladitz and its district of Kömmlitz were demolished and the residents were relocated to the new settlement "Neu-Schladitz" near Rackwitz. Around 780 people were affected in the area of ​​the Breitenfeld opencast mine.

The economic and political change accompanying the German reunification in 1989/90 led to an even faster end for the Breitenfeld opencast mine than the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine. The open-cast mine was stopped in 1991 and the huge excavator association was out of operation after just two years. Due to the early closure, the corridors of the two devastated places Kömmlitz and Schladitz were no longer dredged.

Renaturation of the Delitzsch-Südwest / Breitenfeld opencast mine

Due to the early unplanned closure of the two mining fields Delitzsch-Südwest and Breitenfeld, there were two large residual holes in an area around 3.5 kilometers wide between Leipzig and Delitzsch at the beginning of the 1990s, the edge areas of which were not yet secured for subsequent use. Only 17 percent of the area had already been recultivated. The rest of the area included daytime facilities, workshop facilities, assembly stations, conveyor systems, railway lines, 250 rail vehicles and 24 large equipment, including excavators, spreader and the conveyor bridge with a total weight of around 33,000 tons. In addition to the scrapping of these machines and devices, the securing and renaturation of the area was a main task. Furthermore, the rise of the groundwater was to be expected.

Former opencast mine in Delitzsch-Südwest
Werbeliner See

The work in the area of ​​the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine, which began in mid-1993, aimed to redesign the open-cast mining area for natural recreation. For this purpose, priority should be given to nature conservation in the western part of the opencast mine and a landscape lake should be created in the eastern part. The overburden dump in the south was raised in level and was reforested. A forest network was also planned along the north-south axis of the area. The daytime facilities that had become useless were to be included in the landscaping, while an industrial and commercial area was to be created on the assembly site. After the remaining coal that had already been exposed was recovered in the first renovation step and the slopes and tipping of the remaining holes were secured, the large-scale equipment was removed from the area. While most of the equipment was scrapped, the bucket wheel excavators SRs 320-1546 and -1548 were moved to the active opencast mine Amsdorf of ROMONTA GmbH in the Mansfelder Land . The biggest challenge was blowing up the overburden conveyor bridge on June 28, 1996.

In the area of ​​the Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine, there were four other small holes to the west in addition to the main remaining hole. The main remaining hole was artificially changed mainly in the area of ​​the north and east banks. A headland was formed in the northeastern bank area, reminiscent of the Rundlingsdorf Werbelin that was once located there, while the southeastern area, with its deliberately straight lines, reveals the former mining use. On the former village square of Werbelin, the former residents planted an oak tree at one of the annual meetings. On December 8, 1998, the main remaining hole began to be flooded with water from the Neue Luppe . Since 2010, the completely flooded landscape lake called " Werbeliner See " has been offering the possibility of natural recreation and partial swimming use on an area of ​​450 hectares.

The overburden dump of the opencast mine was located to the west of the main residual hole. From the rugged terrain, rising groundwater developed into the Grabschützer See , which should be completely flooded by 2022. The wet biotope of the lake with its diverse flora and fauna and its numerous small water points is reserved exclusively for nature conservation.

The smallest remaining hole is on the southwestern edge of the former open-cast mine. As a result of the rise in groundwater, Lake Zwochau has been created since 1998 , and its peak is expected to be reached in 2054. The lake is to serve the local bathing business.

Former open pit mine in Breitenfeld
Schladitzer See

The renovation work in the Breitenfeld opencast mine began in 1991, when it was closed. A lake for tourist use with various beach areas was planned. To this end, the embankments and bank areas were first strengthened. In the area of ​​the abandoned town of Schladitz, the deeply cut “Schladitz Bay” was created on the eastern embankment. At the same time, the high tip was recultivated in the western part of the former opencast mine. In addition, areas around the lake were reforested and a wetland biotope set up. A lookout point was created on the “Schaafshöhe”, which was designed with boulders from the opencast mine.

The daytime facilities and the assembly area were both originally intended for industrial use. While some of the daytime facilities at Hayna remained and were converted into a commercial area, the assembly area was freed from all buildings and systems and made available for use by Flughafen GmbH Leipzig as a compensation area for the expansion of Leipzig-Halle International Airport . The large-scale equipment used in the open-cast mine was completely scrapped, leaving only the 17-meter-high bucket wheel of what was once the largest excavator of its time - the SRs 6300-1550. Today it is located north of Gerbisdorf .

With the cessation of drainage, the flooding of the remaining hole in Breitenfeld began in the third quarter of 1998 with rising groundwater. This created the Schladitzer See with an area of ​​223 hectares, which reached its final water level in 2014. The lake has been used as a bathing lake since 2003. Due to the proximity to Leipzig, the lake with its numerous beaches is developing into a recreation area with a variety of sports and recreational opportunities.

The plan is to relocate the Lobers , which will serve as a "bypass" for the overflow of the Schladitzer and Werbeliner lakes.

Output of the opencast mines

The Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine was designed with a capacity of eight to ten million tons of coal per year for a 25-year period. In the 14 years of production (production from 1979 to 1993), with a production capacity of 1,433.3 million tons, only about 46 percent of the total supply of lignite was extracted.

The Breitenfeld opencast mine, planned as a “superlative opencast mine”, was designed for a period of 30 years with an annual output of 15 million tons of coal. In the real production period of five years (production from 1986 to 1991), not even two percent of the total supply of lignite was extracted.

The following table shows the production capacity of the two opencast mines south of Delitzsch.

Open pit Land claim Raw coal mining Overburden movement Gravel sand conveyance
Delitzsch-Southwest (1976-1993) 1,433.3 hectares 92.6 million tons 353.6 million cubic meters 6.3 million cubic meters
Breitenfeld (1982–1991) 360.3 hectares 7.4 million tons 69.5 million cubic meters 0.0 million cubic meters

Resettled localities

Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine

Relocation site Residents Dismantling year
Kattersnaundorf 185 1981
Grave protection 120 1985
Werbelin 130 1992

Due to the closure of the opencast mine in 1993, Werbelin was no longer dredged.

Breitenfeld opencast mine

Relocation site Residents Dismantling year
Loosen 180 1985-1988
Schladitz with Kömmlitz 600 1986-1990

Due to the closure of the opencast mine in 1991, the places Schladitz and Kömmlitz were no longer dredged.

Places designated for devastation

The following locations were in the planned mining area. Due to the premature closure of the two open-cast mines and the failure to open the other three planned open-cast mines, they were spared demolition. This was u. a.

  • Brodau (planned open-cast mine Delitzsch-Süd)
  • Brodenaundorf (planned opencast mine Delitzsch-Süd)
  • Lemsel (planned opencast mine Delitzsch-Süd)
  • Queis (planned Hatzfeld opencast mine, outcrop was planned for 1990)
  • Sietzsch (planned Hatzfeld opencast mine, exploration was planned for 1990)
  • Wölkau (southeast of Delitzsch)
  • Wolteritz (Delitzsch-Südwest opencast mine, devastation and demolition already planned)

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Sietzsch on www.findcity.de ( Memento from June 8, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ^ Queis on the homepage of the city of Landsberg
  3. ^ Sietzsch on the homepage of the city of Landsberg
  4. Intention to devastate Wölkau on the Schönwölkau Castle homepage ( memento of the original from July 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schoenwoelkau.de