Wolframite pit Pechtelsgrün
| Wolframite pit Pechtelsgrün | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
 |
|||
| Mining technology | Ridge construction, ridge construction | ||
| Rare minerals | Bismuth, bismuthinite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, scheelite | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Operating company | Union Association of Leipzig | ||
| Start of operation | 1934 | ||
| End of operation | 1968 | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Tungsten, molybdenum, pyrite | ||
| Greatest depth | 420 m | ||
| overall length | 1430 m | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 35 '12.3 " N , 12 ° 25' 28.6" E | ||
|
|||
| Location | Pechtelsgrün | ||
| local community | Lengenfeld | ||
| District ( NUTS3 ) | Vogtland district | ||
| country | Free State of Saxony | ||
| Country | Germany | ||
The Pechtelsgrün wolframite mine was a pit in a deposit in the Pechtelsgrün in the Vogtland . Tungsten ore was mined here between 1934 and 1969.
geology
The Pechtelsgrüner deposit consists of a train of corridors in the medium-grain Kirchberg granite, a biotite monzogranite. The passageway sweeps at 150 ° and drops 45–70 ° to the NW. It is located above a dome-shaped, vaulted fine-grain granite block. It consists of several parallel two-meter-thick old zones with ore-bearing quartz rubble with a thickness of one meter. The passage is divided into three sections by three translating disturbances. Mineralization was best developed in the central section. The northern fault strikes at 20 ° and dips at 75 ° to the NW. On the 50 meter level, it penetrates the deposit at a distance of about 240 meters north of the shaft. The southern fault strikes at 50 ° and falls at 65 ° NW. On the 50 meter level, it penetrates the deposit at around 205 meters. A second fault located about 550 meters from the shaft in the south strikes at 5 ° and dips at 55 ° W. She is the gang in the south. The northern end of the corridor was driven over on the 100 meter level and is located approx. 710 meters from the shaft. In the south and north the gang broke up and became numb. While the extension of the dike decreased from 1270 meters at the surface of the earth to 990 meters at the 350 meter level, the mineralized part remained almost the same with an extension of approx. 900 meters over the entire depth. In the transition area to the fine-grain granite, an approximately 70-meter-thick aplit zone has been formed below the 400 meter floor . An old man was hit between the 350 and 400 meter level. The corridor zone was hydrothermally embossed over the inner granite up to the level of the 100 meter floor.
Mineralization
- Gang debris: wolframite , molybdenite and pyrite . Hematite , ferberite , pyrrhotite , sphalerite , chalcopyrite , galena , bismuth , bismuthinite and emplektite occur in the hydrothermally overprinted zone . The galena contained up to 0.04% silver .
- Gang olds: cassiterite , molybdenite, wolframite and pyrite. In addition, apatite , zircon and tourmaline occur.
- Ancient bodies: pyrite, pyrrothine, wolframite, scheelite, molybdenite and chalcopyrite.
The ore composition of the deposit changes according to the depth. While the main minerals wolframite and molybdenite decrease from the 230 meter level, the content of pyrite and scheelite increases.
Further, however thin and undeveloped corridors were excavated as a continuation of the Pechtelsgrün corridor to the south-east near Stangengrün, Röthenbach and Plohn.
Quartz with pyrite (2020)
Smoky Quartz (2020)
Wolframite (2020)
Wolframite and Muscovite (2020)
Molybdenum luster and granite (2020)
Parts of Kurt Gerber's mineral collection can be viewed in the Lengenfeld City Museum.
history
Mining until 1945
The discovery of the deposit is thanks to the art drawing teacher Kurt Victor Gerber. The tanner from Mylau took up his position as a teacher in Lengenfeld on September 1, 1921. The local researcher and naturalist discovered remnants of tungsten in the gravel of the road from Pechtelsgrün to Stangengrün in 1926 . After an intensive and systematic search, he discovered a quartz / tungsten corridor on the Höllberg in 1933 . He shared his discovery with Obersteiger Ewald Koch, who lives in Eich . In 1933 he assumed a scrub field under the name New Hope to Pechtelsgrün . In the summer of 1934, prospecting began. They took place in the area of old mining. In two old pinges , jars were sunk. An old shaft with a length of tonnes and a depth of 20 meters was followed. The vein has been demonstrated for 400 meters on strike and 30 meters on dip. All work was carried out under the supervision of the deposits Research Unit of the mining authority Freiberg. Due to the good results, mining should begin at the end of 1935.
On September 1, 1934, prices on the German metal market were decoupled from the world market. Under the sign of the German Reich's striving for self-sufficiency, the President of the Reichsbank, Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht, granted price security for metals such as bismuth, cobalt, tin and tungsten. The difference between the production costs and the world market price was paid in the form of subsidies.
On October 16, 1935, the union Vereinigung zu Leipzig, based in Halle, was founded. Koch brought the mine field into the company and became deputy manager. The chairman of the board was a Mr. Lehmann from Halle. The union's 100 Kuxe were distributed as follows.
- 33 Kuxe Hermann C. Starck Aktiengesellschaft based in Berlin
- 33 Kuxe Elektro-Metallurgie Dr. Heinz Gehm mbh subsidiary of the United Steel Works
- 33 Kuxe IG colors
- 1 Kux the union itself
The workforce was 6 this year.
On December 2, 1935, the depth of a shaft began. The shaft disk had a clear dimension of four meters. At a depth of 54 meters, the sole 1 at 50 meters depth was struck and 1936 via a cross passage approached the vein. Of the 320 meters of the route driven in the corridor, 245 meters were ore-bearing.
In 1937 a depth of 105 meters was reached and the second level was struck at 100 meters. The 2993 tonnes of ore that had been extracted had to be stockpiled as there was no processing plant . The workforce had risen to 28 men.
In 1938 underground work was stopped after 684 t of ore had been extracted. Obviously, the construction progress of the surface facilities and the preparation by the construction company Alfred Seiferth from Lengenfeld was delayed, so that the employees of the pit were included in the construction work.
In January 1939, the ore extraction system from the mine and processing in a former sand pit on the Plohnbach in the Waldkirchen district went into operation. The mining operations were resumed and by the end of the year with 68 employees 7917 t of ore were produced. The ores were transported for processing by tractor and trailer. In the processing, the ore was processed wet mechanically after grinding and then through electromagnetic separation.
The output rose from 26,866 tons of ore in 1940 to 30,475 tons of ore in 1941. The workforce was now 147 employees. In view of these ore quantities, ore transport was no longer up-to-date and in March 1942 the planning of a 2750-meter-long cable car from the shaft to processing began. The building permit was granted on May 28, 1943. The train, designed as a single cable car, was delivered and installed by Bleichert-Transportanlagen GmbH . It went into operation in January 1944. The railway had 45 gondolas with a capacity of 250 kg each. An expansion of the processing plant to include flotation , which began in 1942, could not be completed by the end of the war, as the required machines were no longer delivered on time by the Humboldt company in Cologne-Kalk.
From 1941/42, prisoners of war and foreign foreign workers were also used. In 1944, 80 Belgian and French prisoners of war were employed. There were also around 75 Eastern workers and 75 Soviet prisoners of war.
On February 6, 1945, there was a bomb attack on the return flight of American bombers from a major attack on Chemnitz . A farm was destroyed in this emergency drop. Further bombs failed to be processed and fell on the surrounding fields.
On April 18, American troops marched into Pechtelsgrün. The pits, as well as the processing and associated buildings and systems were devastated or destroyed.
At the end of the war the shaft had reached a depth of 170 meters and the third level had been hit at 150 meters. From 1939 to 1944, 2835 tons of tungsten concentrate were produced. On April 9, 1945 there were 427 workers and 32 salaried employees. Of these, 130 were German employees and workers, 35 French prisoners of war, 96 Soviet prisoners of war, 96 Eastern workers, 58 Italians (formerly military internees ), 44 prisoners from the Lengenfeld subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp .
Mining from 1945
In May 1945, the operating facilities were makeshift repaired by the remaining employees. On July 1, 1945, the American occupation forces withdrew their troops. On July 2, 1945, they were replaced by Soviet troops.
The legal situation of the company is unclear On July 23, operations were resumed. From August 1945 a Dr. Hamann as the company's main engineer. An action committee formed in May 1945 took over the trusteeship for the mine in September 1945. On September 10th, the extraction and processing was resumed. 118 workers and 14 salaried employees were employed. A letter from the union dated September 18, 1945 shows that it is uncertain whether the company will continue to operate after the subsidy has ceased. On January 8, 1946, A. Riebeck'sche Montanwerke Aktiengesellschaft appeared in connection with the settlement of outstanding payments by the union Vereinigung . As a 100% subsidiary of IG Farben, Montanwerke is probably the owner of the company's 33 Kuxe. In a letter dated February 9, 1946, it becomes clear that the company is managed by the trustee Hans Zacher. On March 7, 1946, operations manager Zacher announced the liquidation of the company. From April the company name Wolframitgrube Pechtelsgrün / Vgtl. on. From May 1946 Mr. Höpner can be proven as trustee, who also has the power of attorney . A report dated August 28, 1946 from the mine to the industrial administration of the Auerbach district office shows that the monthly production of 12 tons of tungsten concentrate was managed by the SMA as a reparation payment and delivered to the Soviet Union. In a letter dated January 13, 1947, the company called itself the union Vereinigung Pechtelsgrün i. V. Probably as early as November 1946 processing was placed under Soviet administration. According to a note from Höpner, the factory worked for field post number 27304 from February 6, 1947. This is the Saxon Mining Administration of the Ministry of the Interior of the USSR, which operates under this field post number of the Red Army . Höpner reappeared in 1949 as economic manager of property 25 in Auerbach. On May 30, 1947, the processing of the plant was transferred to Soviet ownership on the basis of order No. 113 of the SMA Saxony . There was thus a separation between processing and pit. After the Wismut AG branch was entered in the commercial register in Aue on July 2, 1947, the processing plant was named Object 31 . Until 1950, Wismut AG still used the scrubbing facility on the mine site for pre-sorting the uranium ores. In 1947 the mine received a new headframe.
In 1948, the Pechtelsgrün mine was assigned to the newly founded VEB Wolframerz –Zschorlau as part of the operation . Until December 31, 1950, the mine remained independent and belonged to VVB Buntmetall Freiberg . The depth of the pit had meanwhile reached 230 meters and the floors were beaten 180 meters and 230 meters. On January 1, 1951, the Zschorlau, Gottesberg and Pechtelsgrün companies were merged to form VEB Wolfram-Zinnerz Rodewisch .
In 1952, the operations of the main administration of potash and non-ore mining, based in Berlin, were subordinated.
In 1954 the depth reached 300 meters. The bottom was struck 290 meters. At the mineralization limit, 500 meters north of the shaft, a storm had been driven up to the 290 meter level.
In 1956, VEB Wolfram-Zinnerz Rodewisch was renamed VEB Wolfram-Zinnerz Pechtelsgrün . The factory management was based in Pechtelsgrün. In 1958 the head office for potash and non-ore mining was dissolved and the VVB Nichteisen-Metallindustrie Eisleben was founded. The VEB Wolfram-Zinnerz Pechtelsgrün was assigned to the VVB.
In the summer of 1959, it became clear how close the links between the mine and processing continued. After weeks of drought, the Plohnbach had almost no water. The pit water from the wolframite pit was used to meet the water requirements for treatment.
In 1961 the shaft reached its final depth of 350 meters and the bottom 350 meters was hit. A depth of 420 meters was reached via a blind shaft from the 350 meter level and the 400 meter level was struck at 400 meters.
After the dissolution of the VVB Nichteisen-Metallindustrie Eisleben in 1967, the VEB Vogtlandgruben Lengenfeld was formed from the VEB Wolfram-Zinnerz Pechtelsgrün . The factory management was based in Lengenfeld.
After the deposit was completely cleared, operations were stopped. The 230 meter floor had the greatest strike length at 1430 meters. The 400 meter floor, the deepest floor of the pit, only reached a striking length of 320 meters. Between 1939 and 1968, 1,250,200 tons of ore were mined and around 3,200 tons of tungsten were produced from it.
Further use
The buildings were taken over in 1971 by the then LPG Göltzschtal in Lengenfeld. Here, an agricultural drying plant was built under the name ZBE (inter-company facility) drying plant Pechtelsgrün .
After the reunification, the company was transformed into Trockenwerk Pechtelsgrün eG . In 1999 there was a plan to build a fiber processing center for renewable raw materials here. However, this plan could not be implemented and the plant had to cease operations.
Today the area is obviously used as a landfill and recycling facility. There is no company entry. Most of the farm buildings of the mine are still there.
literature
- Ludwig Baumann, Ewald Kuschka, Thomas Seifert: Deposits of the Ore Mountains . Georg Thieme, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-8274-1222-6 .
- Werner Runge et al .: Chronicle of the bismuth . Ed .: Wismut GmbH. Self-published, Chemnitz 1999 (CD).
- Peter Burkhardt: Wolframite mining in Pechtelsgrün (1935-1968) . Eudora-Verlag, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-938533-68-0 .
- Michael Hammer: The Pechtelsgrün wolframite mine . Ed .: Lengenfelder Anzeiger No. 295 to 299. Self-published, Lengenfeld 2015.
- Michael Hammer: The Pechtelsgrün wolframite mine . Ed .: Lengenfelder Anzeiger No. 300 to 302. Self-published, Lengenfeld 2016.
- Yearbook for the mining and metallurgical industry in Saxony 1936 to 1942.
