Sankt Andreasberg
Sankt Andreasberg () is a former independent city in the Goslar (district), district of Goslar, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 November 2011, it has formed part of the town Braunlage. It is situated in the Harz, approximately west of Braunlage ...
in the
Upper Harz
The Upper Harz (, ) is 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, the term Upper Harz cover ...
is an iron ore mine that was worked from about 1800 until the 1860s. Today it is operated as a show mine under the name of Roter Bär Pit Educational Mine by the Sankt Andreasberg Society for History and Archaeology (''Sankt Andreasberger Verein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde''). The name Roter Bär means "Red Bear".
In line with historical practice the funds required to restore the historic mine were raised through the formation of a mining
trades union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
and issue of
share certificate
In corporate law, a stock certificate (also known as certificate of stock or share certificate) is a legal document that certifies the legal interest (a bundle of several legal rights) of ownership of a specific number of shares (or, under Ar ...
s.
History
The former iron ore mine situated in the Bären valley at the foot of the Knöchel, east of Sankt Andreasberg forms the heart of the educational Roter Bär Pit today.
The mining of brown iron ore, which occurs here as lens-shaped inclusions in a
Middle Devonian
In the geological timescale, the Middle Devonian epoch (from 393.3 ± 1.2 million years ago to 382.7 ± 1.6 million years ago) occurred during the Devonian period, after the end of the Emsian age.
The Middle Devonian epoch is subdivided into two ...
shale-limestone series, began around 1800 and ended in the mid-1860s. The pit, which was operated by private individuals (''Eigenlehnern''), produced about 50-60 tons of ironstone annually with a workforce of just 4-6 men. The very soft, often clayey,
ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...
was won using picks (''Keilhauen'') without the need for drilling and blasting. Simple hand picking enabled it to be enriched by up to 35-40% Fe content. Its only customer was the Hanoverian state's ''Königshütte''
smelting works
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zinc. Sm ...
in Lauterberg (founded 1733).
Despite only moderate levels of iron content, this ore was in great demand because of its good
smelting
Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...
properties and high proportion of manganese. Blended with red iron ore from the Sieber valley enabled good wrought iron and cable iron (''Seileisen'') to be produced. During this period a network of relatively shallow pits with a total length of more than 1,000 metres were dug. Today these pits have largely been filled in or collapsed and are only accessible in a few places.
With the transfer of Hanover to Prussia (in 1866) and the introduction of charcoal blast furnaces at the ''Königshütte'' smelter (in 1871) the ore from the Roter Bär no longer had a market. The mine was abandoned and fell into ruins.
10 years after the establishment of silver mining at St. Andreasberg (the
Samson Pit
The Samson Pit or Samson Mine () is an historic silver mine in Sankt Andreasberg in the Upper Harz region of central Germany.Ilseder Hütte'' based at Groß-Bülten near
Peine
Peine (; Eastphalian: ''Paane'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of the district Peine. It is situated on the river Fuhse and the Mittellandkanal, approximately west of Braunschweig, northeast of Hildesheim, and east of Hanover ...
as part of a national exploration programme. Although the unworkability of the collapsed and practically exhausted deposit rapidly became clear, the search for as yet still undiscovered lodes of metal continued until 1923.
For about 10 years trial digs were driven northwards and northeast into the mountain, work that employed up to 42 miners. Prospecting was not only carried out at the level of the surface galleries, but also at a depth of 170 m at the
face
The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect th ...
of the Sieber gallery, (the drainage gallery of the St. Andreasberg mining field). From the ''Wennsglückter''
lode
In geology, a lode is a deposit of metalliferous ore that fills or is embedded in a fracture (or crack) in a rock formation or a vein of ore that is deposited or embedded between layers of rock. The current meaning (ore vein) dates from th ...
from where the tunnel was long enough, the 700 m long ''Bär'' cross passage was built running northwards. Despite the driving of trial pits with a total length of about 4 km it did not prove economical to recoverable the ore reserves. The weak and relatively low metal-poor lodes (''Hermannsglücker, Wilhelmsglücker'' and ''Ernst'' lodes) that were discovered turned out at least to be mineralogically very interesting. Highlights include the arsenide
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...
-
cobalt
Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...
ores, and a complex composition of selenide mineralizations.
Visitor mine
In 1931 the newly founded Sankt Andreasberg Society for History and Archaeology took the pit over and established the first visitor mine in the Harz. After 10 years guided tours came to a standstill due to the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The site, which now acted as an
air-raid shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but ...
, saved the lives of many people who fled here during the fighting in April 1945.
From 1947-1949 there were again unsuccessful attempts to mine the remaining clay minerals in eastern field of the mine. In the early 1950s when the historical society devoted itself to the creation of a mining museum on the Samson Pit, the then owner of the mining field, Berging. Dr. Ernst Bock took over the gallery and used it occasionally as an educational mine for the Clausthal Mining Academy. Later the site fell into decay. In 1988 the surface gallery was opened by the mining working group again, and made partially accessible to visitors.
The pit is not just used as a visitor mine, however; it is also to supply drinking water and, during the winter, acts as sheltered haven for
bat
Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...
s. In addition, work is underway to carry out further research and to preserve and protect the old mine workings. Great importance is attached to ensuring they are preserved as far as possible in their original state.
Sponsor
* Mining Working Group (''Arbeitsgruppe Bergbau''), Sankt Andreasberg Society for History and Archaeology (''St. Andreasberger Verein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde e. V.''), founded in 1931