Profen opencast mine

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Profen opencast mine
General information about the mine
Mining technology Open pit
Overburden 35-40 million t
Funding / year 8 million t
Information about the mining company
Operating company MIBRAG
Start of operation 1941
End of operation 2035
Funded raw materials
Degradation of Brown coal / brown coal / brown coal
Brown coal

Seam name

Böhlener Oberflöz
Brown coal
Degradation of Brown coal

Seam name

Thuringian main seam
Brown coal
Degradation of Brown coal

Seam name

Saxon-Thuringian sub-seam
Geographical location
Coordinates 51 ° 7 '53.7 "  N , 12 ° 10' 51.3"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 7 '53.7 "  N , 12 ° 10' 51.3"  E
Opencast mine Profen (Saxony-Anhalt)
Profen opencast mine
Location Profen opencast mine
Location Profen
local community Hohenmölsen , Elsteraue , Zeitz , Elstertrebnitz
District ( NUTS3 ) Burgenlandkreis , district of Leipzig
country State of Saxony-Anhalt
Country Germany
District Central German lignite district

The Profen open-cast mine is an open-cast lignite mine around nine kilometers northeast of Zeitz and three kilometers west of Pegau . Around 75 percent of the area claimed is in the Burgenland district in Saxony-Anhalt and 25 percent in the Leipzig district in Saxony . The disruption of the mine began in 1941 near Profen . The current operator is Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlengesellschaft mbH (MIBRAG), which was privatized in 1994 and has been a subsidiary of EP Energy as since 2012

equipment

Today's Profen opencast mine is a combined belt and truck opencast mine in which three coal seams are extracted. The coal extracted here originated between 45 and 20 million years ago. In order to expose the main seam, a five to ten meter thick quartzite deposit must be removed next to the overburden . The overburden is removed via a three-cut conveyor belt . The metamorphic rock is loosened by blasting and loaded onto heavy-duty tippers (85 t payload) using a hydraulic excavator and front shovel loader. The middle overburden between the upper and lower seam is conveyed to the spreader via conveyor belts . The debris has been dumped on a dump within the open pit since 1999 . The following large devices are in use:

  • Bucket chain excavator 299 ERs 560
  • Bucket chain excavator 309 ERs 560
  • Bucket ladder excavator 351 ERs 710
  • Belt trailer 810 BRs 1400 (currently parked)
  • Belt trailer 812 BRs 1400
  • Belt trailer 813 BRs 1400
  • Belt trailer 819 BRs 1400
  • Belt trailer 828 BRs 1400
  • Spreader 1104 A2Rs-B 8800.110.1
  • Spreader 1112 A2Rs-B 10000.150
  • Bucket wheel excavator 1511 SRs 2000 + VR
  • Bucket wheel excavator 1541 SRs 1300
  • Bucket wheel excavator 1553 SRs 1301
  • Bucket wheel excavator 1580 SRs 2000 + VR
  • Reclaimer 1560 GSs 1200
  • Stockpiling bulk device 1880 As 11200.38

history

Profen opencast mine, 1996
Profen opencast mine, 2018
Profen-Süd mining field, 2006
Schwerzau mining field, 2009

In connection with industrialization , the demand for domestic coal for domestic heating in central Germany rose sharply towards the end of the 19th century , but above all for the growing number of factories. Conveniently located at the railway line Leipzig-Zeitz located, opened in around four kilometers from the breakpoint Profen the Waldauer Lignite Industry AG in 1908, the underground mine Bunge Nebe in Queisau . Two years later, the company built a briquette factory in Profen with six forming presses and a wet stone plant . The factory was initially supplied with raw lignite from the Bunge-Nebe mine via a cable car . Even in the GDR era , the Profen briquettes were imprinted with Waldau . It was thus evident that the presses installed in 1910 remained in operation for many decades.

Waldauer Braunkohlen-Industrie AG itself was taken over in 1911 by Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG , which merged in 1924 with the stock corporation of Anhaltischen Kohlenwerke (AKW), first as part of an administrative association and in 1940 completely. The nuclear power plant included the large open- cast mine in Wählitz , from where the briquette factory in Profen was supplied from 1930 via new in-house coal railways. Against this background, the Bunge-Nebe mine near Queisau was closed in 1930 . At the beginning of May 1938, the Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG and the Anhaltischen Kohlenwerke came into the possession of Friedrich Flick . Around eight months later, work began in Profen on the construction of a state-of-the-art carbonisation plant with purging gas based on Lurgi , which went into operation in 1940. At the same time, the decision was made to open a new large opencast mine in the immediate vicinity of Profen, which was to compete with the high-tech Otto-Scharf mine of A. Riebeck'sche Montanwerke ( IG Farben ).

In 1941, the drainage work for the opening of the new Profen opencast mine began. At the same time, a works railway to Wählitz was built. This connection was used to transport the first overburden from Profen for tipping in the charred part of the Wählitz II opencast mine, later also called "quartzite dump". During the first excavation, which began in 1943, the excavators encountered tertiary quartzite , which turned out to be specific to the mountains in the Profen area below the surface . At the time of the Nazi dictatorship and the SED dictatorship , accompanying raw materials played a subordinate role as long as there were no delays in the extraction of lignite. After 1990, the mining industry referred to the earlier quartzite dumps as "interim storage facilities" and the buried pits were reopened to "secure raw materials".

In May 1944, the Profen opencast mine started operations. As the geologists of the time correctly determined during exploration , the raw lignite in the developed areas was characterized by a bitumen content of up to 70 percent. The Profener Schwelerei refined the coal into Schwelteer , which the Zeitz hydrogenation plant, completed in 1939 by Braunkohle-Benz AG (BRABAG), converted into synthetic gasoline . Despite the production, which was important for the war effort, the devastation of sites for the Profen opencast mine was not up for discussion at the time and was not even considered. Rather, already existed in 1942 when mining authority Zeitz concrete plans for reclamation of mining area.

The United States' armed forces advancing into Profen in April 1945 paid little attention to lignite and open-cast mining. This changed on July 1, 1945. According to the zone protocol , the US armed forces withdrew from Central Germany on this day and left the area to the Soviet occupying power in exchange with West Berlin . Their Red Army was responsible for the expropriations and dismantling operations that began. In contrast to the nearby Otto-Scharf mine near Köttichau , whose open-cast mining equipment was completely removed by Soviet loot commandos between July and November 1945, the dismantling in Profen was limited. Here the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) very quickly switched to withdrawing the reparation claims it had raised from ongoing production.

On November 16, 1946, the Profen opencast mine with the Kippfeldern Wählitz I and II and the briquette factories in Profen, Wählitz and Köpsen were transferred to a Soviet stock corporation (SAG 'Maslo'). The combined “Combine Profen” produced almost exclusively for the USSR for the next six years . In April 1952, the permitted SMAD the GDR the stages have "buy-back" of brown coal plants Profen. However, only after the popular uprising of June 17, 1953, the reparations payments were completely stopped.

From 1953 to 1955 a works railway was built between Profen and the VEB lignite works 'Erich Weinert' in Deuben . As early as 1952, with the opening of the so-called Sachsenfeld , west of Elstertrebnitz , the expansion of the opencast mine began. With a few exceptions, all coal fields that were newly opened after 1945 had considerable deficits. The coal that was extracted from then on led at times to major performance drops in the Profen and Deuben processing plants. The addition of tar residues from the smelting plants only showed a limited improvement in quality.

In general, it was found that the lignite has a relatively high water content of 48 to 60 percent. Only around 35 to 50 percent are combustible material (pure coal). Up to 16 percent of the burned raw lignite remains as ash and slag . The high water content leads to a comparatively low calorific value . The main disadvantage, however, turned out to be the sulfur content : In addition to the Schleenhain opencast mine , the coal from the Profen opencast mine has the highest sulfur content in Germany of 1.7 percent. A high sulfur content generally leads to higher wear and tear in the power plants as well as to higher expenditure and higher costs for flue gas cleaning . In addition, an unfavorable overburden-to-coal ratio of 7: 1 on average, as well as large-scale quartzite banks in all of the mining fields in the Profen opencast mine opened after 1945 make it difficult to extract lignite.

On July 1, 1968, the Profen opencast mine together with the connected opencast mines and factories was integrated into the VEB lignite works 'Erich Weinert' Deuben . A year later, the Profener Schwelerei was closed. After the old mining fields had been charred, the opening of the new Profen-Nord and Profen-Süd opencast mines began at the same time in September 1971. The fields ran through a million year old overburden with massive quartzite layers that could not be broken through with the excavation technology used up to now. The removal was carried out by a newly established main department of drilling and blasting technology with around 100 employees and demolition masters specially trained for the Profen opencast mine . In the 1980s, the annual consumption of explosives reached a level of around 1100 tons. This made the Deuben lignite mine with its Profen-Nord and Profen-Süd opencast mines one of the largest civilian consumers of explosives in the GDR. The production of lignite peaked in 1977 with around 5.4 million tons in the Profen-Nord opencast mine and in 1989 with around 12 million tons in the Profen-South opencast mine.

After the collapse of the GDR , the Profen briquette factory was closed in August 1990. The VEB Braunkohlenwerk Deuben initially became a stock corporation owned by the Treuhandanstalt and was named Mitteldeutsche Braunkohlenwerke AG (MIBRAG). After several takeovers , the company has been fully owned as a limited liability company since 2012 by EP Energy as , a wholly owned subsidiary of the Czech Energetický a Průmyslový Holding .

With the scheduled decarburization, operations in the Profen-Nord opencast mine ended at the beginning of 1991. Since then, MIBRAG has continued to run the Profen-Süd opencast mine as Profen with the Profen-Süd / D1 as well as Schwerzau and Domsen mining fields. In 2017, the operator announced that Profen-Süd / D1 still had 1.3 million tonnes of raw lignite and should be coaled out by 2020. According to the company, the Schwerzau mining field, which was opened in 2006, still had a volume of 41 million tons in 2017 and is to be dredged by 2024. The development of the 888 hectare Domsen mining field began in 2016; Here MIBRAG expects to be able to dredge a total of 82 million tons of raw lignite by 2035.

The main buyers of the lignite from the Profen open-cast mine are the lignite power plants operated by MIBRAG or its sole shareholder EP Energy :

According to the assumptions of environmental activists and members of the German Bundestag , MIBRAG has been supplying lignite from the Profen opencast mine since 2012, officially according to company information since 2014, to the Komorany ( Komořany u Mostu ) power plant and the Opatovice ( Opatovice nad Labem ) power plant in Czech Republic , where the operation of open-cast lignite mines is expected to cease in 2022 at the latest, and involuntary land assignments have no longer been permitted since 2012.

Overburden dump Pirkau

The Pirkau open-cast mine, which went into operation in 1945 and was directly adjacent to the Profen open-cast mine to the south-west, belonged to the VEB brown coal works Deuben. After the Profen opencast mine was integrated into the VEB Braunkohlenwerk Deuben in 1968, the two opencast mines did not formally form a unit under operating law, but in fact. In 1971 the decision was made not to drive the Pirkau opencast mine further east in the direction of Draschwitz , but rather the Profen opencast mine to the south in the direction of Döbris and Draschwitz. This resulted in the Profen-Süd mining field, which ended mining in the Pirkau open-cast mine in 1974.

From this point on, the closed Pirkau opencast mine was formally part of the Profen opencast mining area and was used as a waste dump . The complete backfilling of the Pirkaus opencast mine with overburden from the Profen-Süd opencast mine or the Süd / D construction field was originally supposed to take place by 1988/89. In fact, backfilling did not begin until 1985. The Pirkau external dump was operated by the Profen opencast mine until 2000.

Destroyed localities

After 1945, lignite mining reached a new dimension. The GDR almost exclusively used domestic brown coal to generate energy. The maximization of the production volumes led to the use of huge areas. Places that were in the coal fields were consistently dredged. The largest number of demolitions and resettlements in Central Germany therefore occurred in the time of the GDR. Centuries-old manors, churches and cultural monuments were destroyed, cemeteries desecrated, entire forests cleared, rivers and streams relocated, canalized or diked. The mining of lignite took place in the GDR with practically no consideration for people or environmental concerns.

Lignite mining has permanently changed the landscape in the Profen area. In the period from 1947 to the present day, 20 places or districts were devastated in several stages . More than 6000 people had to leave their homes. The majority of those affected were relocated to newly built districts in Hohenmölsen and Zeitz. The following overview shows the excavated sites in the Profen opencast mine, including the Pirkau waste dump.

place Resettled residents Start of relocation / year Devastation / year Redevelopment of the corridor / year
Pirkau (Old Pirkau) 360 1947 1951 1951
Streckau 700 1953 1954 1954
Courage 1033 1955 1957 1958
Köttichau 795 1960 1962 1963
Stöntzsch 760 1963 1966 1965
Elstertrebnitz (partially) 110 1963 1963 without
Pegau (partially) 114 1963 1964 without
Dobris 615 1965 1967 2009
Domsen (settlement) 30th 1967 1968 1998
Queisau 187 1977 1979 1981
Stone Grimma 178 1980 1981 1981
Dobergast 285 1983 1984 1985
Schwerzau 38 1994 1996 1996
Draschwitz (colliery house) 15th 1994 1994 without
Bösau 86 1997 2001 1998
Deumen 157 1997 2002 1998
Mödnitz 65 1997 2005 1998
Domsen 173 1997 2009 1998
Grunau 109 1997 2009 1998
Great Grimma 224 1997 2009 1998

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://ostkohle.de/html/profengerate.html
  2. ↑ Mitteldeutsches Braunkohlenrevier, Wandlungen und Perspektiven, Issue 19, Profen, p. 6. LMBV , accessed on March 15, 2019
  3. ↑ Heiko Gösel: Weissenborn home. Echoes of times gone by. Weißenborn, 2015, p. 17. Forstkurier, accessed on March 15, 2019
  4. ↑ Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG annual reports from 1924 to 1940 Hamburg World Economic Archive, accessed on May 13, 2019
  5. ↑ Mitteldeutsches Braunkohlenrevier, Wandlungen und Perspektiven, Issue 19, Profen, p. 6. LMBV, accessed on March 15, 2019
  6. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Drecoll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Walter de Gruyter, 2012, p. 159.
  7. ↑ Rolf Dieter Stoll, Christian Niemann-Delius, Carsten Drebenstedt, Klaus Müllensiefen: The brown coal opencast mine. Significance, planning, operation, technology, environment. Springer Science & Business Media, 2008, p. 196.
  8. ↑ Johannes Bähr, Axel Drecoll, Bernhard Gotto, Kim Christian Priemel, Harald Wixforth: The Flick Group in the Third Reich. Walter de Gruyter, 2012, p. 159.
  9. ↑ Mitteldeutsches Braunkohlenrevier, Wandlungen und Perspektiven, Issue 19, Profen, p. 6. LMBV, accessed on March 15, 2019
  10. ↑ Reclamation of mining areas of the Anhalt coal works, Zeitz group, Saxony-Anhalt state archive, accessed on March 16, 2019
  11. ↑ Jürgen Möller: American occupation of the southern Leipzig area by the V. US Corps in April 1945. Arps, 2006, pp. 59, 74.
  12. ↑ Klaus Neitmann, Jochen Laufer: Dismantling in the Soviet zone of occupation and in Berlin 1945 to 1948. Subject-related archive inventory. BWV Verlag, 2014, p. 10.
  13. ↑ Klaus-Peter Meinicke, Klaus Krug, Uwe Gert Müller: Industrial and environmental history of the Saxony-Anhalt region. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 2003, p. 27 f.
  14. ↑ Central German brown coal district, changes and perspectives, issue 19, Profen, p. 6 f. LMBV, accessed on March 15, 2019
  15. ^ Christiane Künzel: Administration of Soviet [state] stock corporations in Germany (SAG). In: Horst Möller, Alexandr O. Tschubarjan (Ed.): SMAD-Handbuch. The Soviet military administration in Germany 1945–1949. Oldenbourg-Verlag, 2009, pp. 388-395.
  16. ↑ Industrial railways in central German lignite mining (p. 6.) LMBV, accessed on March 15, 2019
  17. ^ Bergakademie Freiberg (ed.): Freiberger research books. Series A. Deutscher Verlag für Grundstofftindustrie, 1963, p. 18.
  18. ^ The German lignite industry, study, 2017, pp. 23–25. Agora Energiewende, accessed on March 13, 2019
  19. ↑ Mitteldeutsches Braunkohlenrevier, Wandlungen und Perspektiven, Issue 19, Profen, p. 4. LMBV, accessed on March 15, 2019
  20. ↑ Central German Brown Coal District, Changes and Perspectives, Issue 19, Profen, p. 4 f. LMBV, accessed on March 15, 2019
  21. ↑ Central German Brown Coal District 1990–2017 DEBRIV , accessed on March 17, 2019
  22. ↑ Development of the Domsen mining field in the Profen Mitteldeutsche Zeitung opencast mine on April 4, 2013, accessed on March 17, 2019
  23. ↑ MIBRAG presentation Raw Materials Day Saxony-Anhalt August 29, 2017 (p. 7.) IHK Halle, accessed on March 17, 2019
  24. ↑ When Bodo is no longer allowed to dig - coal phase-out planned for 2038 Wochenspiegel-Verlag, accessed on March 17, 2019
  25. ↑ Legal opinion of October 28, 2015 Climate Alliance Germany, accessed on March 17, 2019
  26. ↑ Group information on MIBRAG EP Coal Trading, accessed on March 17, 2019
  27. ^ Lignite deliveries to the Czech Republic, German Bundestag printed matter 18/3819, accessed on March 17, 2019
  28. ↑ Sub- area development program for the planning area Profen (p. 1297 f.) State Chancellery Saxony-Anhalt, accessed on September 18, 2019
  29. ↑ Mitteldeutsches Braunkohlenrevier, Wandlungen und Perspektiven, Issue 19, Profen, see picture on p. 4. LMBV, accessed on September 18, 2019
  30. ^ Resettlements: Political and economic framework conditions in the GDR archive of lost places, accessed on March 16, 2019
  31. ^ Rolf Dieter Stoll, Christian Niemann-Delius, Carsten Drebenstedt, Klaus Müllensiefen: The lignite opencast mining: Significance, planning, operation, technology, environment. Springer, 2008, p. 442 f.
  32. ↑ Central German Brown Coal District, Changes and Perspectives, Issue 18, Zeitz / Weißenfels, p. 13. LMBV, accessed on March 18, 2019
  33. ↑ Mitteldeutsches Braunkohlenrevier, Wandlungen und Perspektiven, Issue 19, Profen, p. 10. LMBV, accessed on March 18, 2019
  34. ↑ For links to the locations, see further evidence