A ''Kunstteich'' (plural: ''Kunstteiche'') is an historic German term for a man-made lake or pond associated with the

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

industry and its technology. These

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

s were created by the construction of barriers, typically

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

s and embankments, and were used to supply

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...

and water to the mines. Water stored in the reservoir was used for a variety of purposes. It was used to turn

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

s that in turn drove the various mechanical devices used in mining in earlier centuries, such as

man engine A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in Mining, mines to assist the miners' journeys to and from the working levels. It was invented in Germany in the 19th century and was a prominent feature of ...

s. It was also used to produce power and drain the mines, or in the processing of ore. In principle, all ''Kunstteiche'' are small dam and reservoir installations. The oldest working dams in Germany are ''Kunstteiche''. Water is supplied to and transported away from the ponds either above ground in artificial channels ('' Kunstgräben'') or underground through so-called '' Röschen'', small channels in the mine galleries. If the water from ''Kunstteiche'' is used in the smelting (''Verhüttung'') of

ore Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April 2 ...

they may be called ''Hüttenteiche'' or "smelter ponds". An extensive, surviving system of ''Kunstteiche'' and ''Röschen'' is the Freiberg Mining Area Water System ('' Revierwasserlaufanstalt Freiberg'') in the Ore Mountains in the former

Freiberg Freiberg is a university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany. It is a so-called ''Große Kreisstadt'' (large county town) and the administrative centre of Mittelsachsen district. Its historic town centre has been placed under heritage c ...

mining region (10 ponds). Other very large systems are found in the

Upper Harz The Upper Harz (german: Oberharz, ) refers to the northwestern and higher part of the Harz mountain range in Germany. The exact boundaries of this geographical region may be defined differently depending on the context. In its traditional sense, th ...

around

Clausthal-Zellerfeld Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort ...

(

Upper Harz Water Regale The Upper Harz Water Regale (german: Oberharzer Wasserregal, ) is a system of dams, reservoirs, ditches and other structures, much of which was built from the 16th to 19th centuries to divert and store the water that drove the water wheels of the ...

, 65 ponds) and in the

Lower Harz The Harz () is a Mittelgebirge, highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middl ...

around Straßberg (Lower Harz Ditch and Pond System, 21 ponds with a capacity of 1.75 M m³).

Literature

* Otfried Wagenbreth, Eberhard Wächtler: ''Der Freiberger Bergbau: Technische Denkmale und Geschichte''. 2nd edn., Springer Spektrum Deutscher Verlag für Grundstoffindustrie, Berlin-Heidelberg, 1988, . * Wilfried Ließmann: ''Historischer Bergbau im Harz''. 3rd edn., Springer Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg, 2010, {{ISBN, 978-3-540-31327-4. Water management in mining Hydropower Reservoirs

See also

Literature