Betriebspunkt IX Ravelsberg

Operating Point IX, Ravel's Mountain, Spoil Tip

This location is home to the newest operating point of the Diepenlinchen mine. The foundation remnants of the depicted Ravelberg conveyor tower and the adjacent machine house are still visible here.

This operating point is the last shaft in a series of shafts that extend in a line to Binsfeldhammer. This part of the concession is not directly connected to the main mining area of the Diepenlinchen mine and was only sunk to a depth of 200 m before the Diepenlinchen mine was closed.

In the background, the old spoil tip rises. It and the neighboring Albertsgrube were the last to be mined. However, there were plans to resume mining until the 1930s. Both this operating point and the Kuckuck shaft of the Albertsgrube are located opposite each other along the shared concession boundary.

Since shaft "IX Ravel" was sunk 70 m deeper than the Kuck duck shaft, the mining area of Kuckucksgang and Zufriedenheit of the Albertsgrube were unintentionally drained through this shaft, giving the Kuckuck shaft, as the "Kuckuck child" of shaft IX, its name.

Spoil tip: Spoil tips are the mounds of loose rock material generated by mining. However, the word part "Berge" is not to be understood in a topographical sense, but derives from the mining terminology for "waste rock," which had to be excavated and brought to the surface ("recovered") alongside the actual ore during the driving of the tunnels.

The spoil tips of the ore mines in the area mainly consist of limestone and dolomite debris, which is often used in road construction.

The nearby spoil tip of the Zufriedenheit mine, for example, was completely removed and used to gravel the Napoleonsweg as well as this forest path to the operating point, thus reinforcing it.

(Text: Jens Mieckley)