Wismut (company)

In 1991 after German reunification it was transformed into the Wismut GmbH company, owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, which is now responsible for the restoration and environmental cleanup of the former mining and milling areas.

The metal was discovered in a sample from a silver mine in the mountain range, and uranium was produced first as a by-product in the early 19th century and later as a main product from the 1890s on.

The chemists Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the elements radium and polonium in pitchblende tailings from a Czech uranium mine in these mountains.

Maltsev applied GULAG discipline methods in the early days of the Wismut operation, such as withdrawing food rations from miners who did not fulfill their quotas or the use of military tribunals for those workers accused of alleged sabotage.

To maintain secrecy and security, however, in early 1947, the mining districts became closed military zones, banning even the East German government party, SED, from activities there.

The Soviet military employees in Wismut, on the other hand, were under the authority of the Ministry of State Security, Minister Viktor Abakumov, who had frequent conflicts with Serov.

[4] The uranium industry grew in the early years after the war at an extraordinary rate, reaching its highest number of employees in autumn 1950 with over 200,000 workers.

This new company is responsible for restoring the former mining and milling sites, for which the government approved a total budget of around 6.4 billion euro, but higher costs are anticipated.

The Ore Mountains (German: Erzgebirge) and Vogtland were the first exploration targets for uranium and host the largest number of deposits mined by Wismut.

The deposits are related to deep crustal northwest-trending fault structures, with the most important being the Gera-Jáchymov fault zone containing most of the larger deposits, including Jáchymov on the Czech site of the Ore Mountains, Johanngeorgenstadt, Pöhla-Tellerhäuser, Schneeberg-Schlema-Alberoda in the German part of the Ore Mountains, and Ronneburg black shale-type mineralisation in Thuringia.

Shaft 371 was connected to the -540 and -990 m level (the depth is related to the Markus Semmler adit dewatering the upper part of the deposit into the Zwickauer Mulde river).

The mining method used was the same as in the centuries before, although with more modern equipment: galleries were driven along strike of the mineralised vein on a lower and upper level (vertical distance 30 to 45 m).

The ore was transported to the lower level and brought to the main shafts by rail cars, while the stope was filled with waste rock, as possible.

Underground work, especially in Oberschlema, is being carried out to secure near-surface galleries and shafts from collapse and to provide safe airways for radon-containing mine air to prevent it from uncontrolled movement into populated areas of the region.

For example, in samples from a single ore shot in Schneeberg five new uranium minerals were discovered in 1871, namely walpurgite, zeunerite, troegerite, uranospinite and uranosphaerite.

However, after negotiations between the state of Saxony, the German federal government and Wismut GmbH contracts were made and funds were provided to restore these old areas, including Johanngeorgenstadt.

In this town activities of Wismut GmbH include mainly contouring, relocation and covering of dumps, and securing hazardous underground mining areas.

However, although resources were high and ore grades were better than in the producing tin mines in East Germany at that time, the mineralogy was very complex, preventing the usage of proven milling technologies.

The positive results regarding base metals at Hämmerlein and Tellerhäuser led to a reinvestigation of tin, tungsten and further resources at Globenstein and significant mineralisation was discovered in the 1980s.

Before Wismut discovered the nearby uranium mineralisations, it had already taken over the processing plant from the tin mine Tannenbergsthal on top of the Schneckenstein mountain in 1948.

Eastern Thuringia developed in the 1950s into one of the major mining centers of Wismut, hosting the giant ore field of Ronneburg and the medium-sized deposit of Culmitzsch.

During the 1950s exploration work at Ronneburg contributed the most uranium to the resource base of Wismut, showing the significance of the newly discovered deposit.

Sabotage was first considered as the cause, but the increasing number of fires showed that there must be another reason, which was found in the sulphur and carbon content of the black shales in combination with wrong mining methods.

The largest deposit was Dittrichshütte and was mined underground with several small shafts producing about 112 tonnes of uranium from a black-shale-type mineralisation.

Within a few years thousands of people from all across Germany and refugees from the formerly German regions now part of Poland and the Soviet Union were drafted to work in the uranium mining centers.

Furthermore, narrow galleries in combination with a lack of proper ventilation led to high concentrations of radon and its decay products in the mines.

Exposure to radon and quartz dust was significantly reduced by improving mining methods, equipment, ventilation and training the miners.

During these later years, Wismut had one of the best educated work forces of all companies in East Germany, with the highest number of academic degrees per employee.

After German reunification in 1990, the foundation cleaning up environmental damage took responsibility for the artwork, but the collection remains inaccessible to the public in the former headquarters building.

[14] The novel Rummelplatz, by Werner Bräunig, deals with work in the Soviet owned uranium mines of the Wismut AG and covers the time span from the foundation of the GDR in 1949 to the uprising in East Germany on June 17, 1953.