Erzgrube Diepenlinchen

The history of the Diepenlinchen mine

The name Diepenlinchen is derived from the local dialect "Diepe Linche", which means "deep shafts" in High German. In fact, the main complex of the mine has a depth of 382 m and is therefore more than twice as deep as the shafts of the surrounding mines. The mine was opened in 1809, still under French annexation. Prior to this, calamine had already been mined close to the surface up to the groundwater level by the Romans and in the 17th and 18th centuries in open-cast mining, later in panning and pack mining.

Due to the immensely high inflow of water and insufficient water management, mining operations had to be discontinued before the 80 m level was reached. It was not until the 1840s that mining operations could be resumed by the new owners, namely the "Metallurgische Gesellschaft zu Stolberg" (76.6% share) and the "Eschweiler Bergwerksverein" (23.4%), after great technical and financial effort. In addition to many other operating points, the mine was operated via the following shafts: Main hoisting shaft, 356 m depth, driving shaft, 350 m depth, Wittmann shaft (dewatering), 382 m depth, Blumeschacht (dewatering), 382 m depth and Froschschacht (ventilation shaft). Over the years, the mine was mined deeper and deeper below the "Old Man", the surface area from a depth of 67 m, which had been completely eroded by pre-industrial mining.
The mine was shut down in 1919, officially due to a strike by the miners, but in reality due to the cost of dewatering. Above ground, however, the processing of the old tailings continued until 1942. In order to extract the ore remaining in the tailings piles, the tailings were finely ground using the flotation process and mixed with water to form a slurry.

Air was blown in to take advantage of the physical differences between the ores and the waste rock. As the ores have a different surface wettability than the surrounding rock, the ore particles adhere to the air bubbles and can be skimmed off the surface as ore-rich foam. The particles of the surrounding rock, however, sink to the bottom. What remains is a fine sand/clay mixture, which is dumped on a heap. You can still clearly see this dump above the glider airfield. However, most of it has been covered and planted to prevent it from blowing away.

(Text: Jens Mieckley)