Büchenberg Pit
The ore mine Büchenberg is now operated as a show mine former iron ore mine in Büchenberg, community Upper am Brocken in Saxony- Anhalt.
History
The mining of iron ore in the region is already occupied from the time of the Middle Ages, in which the reduction was first in the form of opencast mining in so-called pinging. After a heyday of Elbingeröder ore mining in the 16th century, the promotion was continued with varying intensity until 1925, but then first set entirely. However, in the 1930s the promotion resumed in the region. The extraction of iron ore in the ore mine Büchenberg began in 1936, in particular the needs of the defense industry was covered. The mine was acquired by Mannesmann. The degradation focused only on the ore deposits of the pit, whose iron content was more than 35%. From 1937 to 1940, from Rothenberg ( slot I), now the entrance to the exhibition mine a 8650 -meter-long cable car with which the iron ore was transported to after Minsleben where it was loaded onto railroad cars. The ropeway type Zenith had 33 first performed in wooden supports. The maximum span between two supports was 1262 meters, the diameter of the support cable 3.5 centimeters. Four jigs and three road safety devices belonged to the cable car. The plant had 74 Loren and was operated at a speed of 2.66 meters per second. 45 workers were involved in the transport logistics. Bauausführendes company was the company Bleichert Transport GmbH Leipzig. Building owner of the cable car in the years 1940/41, which is a subsidiary of the Mannesmann tube works union Constanze from Dusseldorf with administrative headquarters in Giessen. Take the cable car 840 tons of iron ore were transported daily. The further processing of the ore was in the room Salzgitter.
After the end of World War II the mine was initially shut down. In 1946 they stopped production again. The mine was nationalized. For processing of the ore, Salzgitter was now in West Germany and was no more than the processing site in question, a specially designed on the Büchenberg Berger ore low-shaft furnace plant was built in calbe (Saale ) low-shaft furnace plant calbe (Saale ). It came lignite Hochtemperaturkoks apply. 1958/1959, the cable car was modernized. The old wooden columns were exchanged during operation against steel supports. New safety net systems replaced the old wooden bridges road protection.
After the GDR was able to relate better iron ore from the Soviet Union, the continued operation of the ore mine was no longer profitable and was closed down on April 30, 1970. The above-ground located operating facilities were initially used as a vacation rental. The cable car was 1971/1972 dismantled and scrapped. Only the support number 1 and the still functioning drive remained. Even in the time of the GDR, plans were to redesign the mine to show mine. 1984, the first floor of the mine was again prepared so that an implementation of the plans was possible. The opening of the exhibition mine was then carried out on October 7, 1989, the 40th anniversary of the Republic, the National Day of the GDR.
Access to the mine is not done via the old mine shaft, but by a staircase along the driveway of the old industrial cableway in the mine, the sooner the broken ore was transported from the mine. Since 1993, the mine is also accessible for wheelchair users and people with reduced mobility. The guide path through the mine has a length of 600 meters. Overall, the mine includes a system of more than 40 kilometers on six soles that are predominantly not accessible to visitors. In Mine are still the mining equipment available, which were used in the 1950s and 1960s in the GDR mining. The machines and the Gezähe are functional and are paraded on tours, so an overhead loader, a Erzschrapper and more drills.
Until 1 July 2006, the Mine was operated in sponsorship of community Elbingerode. Since then, the plant is leased.