RAG

On 7th December 2021, Peter Schrimpf, Chairman of the Board of Executives of RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, and Chairman of the Board of Stiftung Zollverein, Essen, welcomed Ina Scharrenbach, Minister for Home, Community, Construction and Equality of North Rhine-Westphalia. Together, they travelled into the depths: 1,000 m below the surface of the earth, they visited the mine water management pumping systems in the “Zollverein XII” shaft in Essen (Figure 1).

“Zollverein is a symbol of our past and our future. It was one of the most high-performance mining complexes in the world and is a World Heritage Site today, while it remains an active mining site as well as housing the RAG headquarters,” says Schrimpf. “After 20 years, the Zollverein Foundation is facing some big tasks. Maintaining this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site is a challenge. That’s why the Zollverein Foundation relies on a broad support base,” says Schrimpf, who, as successor to Bernd Tönjes, is also Chairman on the Zollverein Foundation Board.

“The Zollverein mine shows how structural changes can be successful: Since the last shift ended in December 1986, Zollverein has turned into a place for art, culture and creative businesses. The Doppelbock winding tower is a widely recognisable monument as the “Eiffel Tower of the Ruhr valley”. With its fully preserved mining systems and coking plant, Zollverein has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001 – a place worth engaging with and experiencing. A strong piece of home. A strong piece of North Rhine-Westphalia, which it is our job to preserve,” says Minister Scharrenbach after visiting the shafts.

On their trip to Zollverein, the Minister and Schrimpf were accompanied by Bärbel Bergerhoff-Wodopia, member of the RAG-Stiftung Board of Executives, Essen, and Prof. Hans Peter Noll, Executive Chairman of the Stiftung Zollverein. “We also really care about this place,” says Bergerhoff-Wodopia, “that’s why we are also supporting multiple projects at Zollverein. And we have chose it as the site of the RAG-Stiftung headquarters. This proves that we believe in the future of this mining site so steeped in tradition.” (RAG/Si.)

Some three years after the ceremony to mark the end of the German coal mining industry, leading representatives of RAG-Stiftung and RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, joined Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a historic mining site.

Together with the head of state and other representatives from the worlds of politics, business and culture, the chair of the RAG-Stiftung board of management Bernd Tönjes, member of the board of management Bärbel Bergerhoff-Wodopia and the chair of the RAG board of management Peter Schrimpf visited the “We’re from here. Turkish-German Life in 1990” exhibition. Photographer Ergun Çağatay’s retrospective on the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is funded by the Federal Foreign Office and RAG-Stiftung.

Steinmeier visited the exhibition on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the German-Turkish Recruitment Agreement (Figure 1). “We should no longer be talking about how we have people with a migration background here, but instead about how, over the years, we’ve become a country with a migration background,” Steinmeier emphasised after the tour. Without these people, we could not account for some of the prosperity in our country.

While the coal mining industry was active, RAG itself made integration history. A host of different nationalities worked in the mines and factories. Employees originated from, e. g., Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Hungary and Turkey.

Integration was part of everyday life in the local mining industry – not least because of the district working group for cultural support for miners at that time (Revierarbeitsgemeinschaft für kulturelle Bergmannsbetreuung – REVAG). The REVAG, founded in 1948 as a specialist unit for cultural support for miners, did pioneering work in that field. It led guest workers out of linguistic and cultural isolation, created trust between immigrants and locals and opened up opportunities for immigrants to participate equally in social, political and civic life. (RAG)

On 25th August 2021, Michael Kalthoff, Member of the Board at RAG Aktiengesell-schaft, Essen/Germany, and Prof. Hans-Heinrich Witte, President of the Federal Shipping and Waterways Administration (WSV), Bonn/Germany, signed in Essen an agreement on final subsidence damage control for the Rhine bed in the Duisburg and Wesel region (Figure 1).

This agreement between the two parties, RAG and WSV, marks a successful end to years of effective and focused cooperation on the Rhine. In particular, as a result of the decades of coal mining, the Rhine bed between Duisburg and Wesel would frequently sink and need to be regularly raised.

Prof. Witte: “The conclusion we have reached today enables us to purposefully guide the Rhine into the future. We are drawing on our extensive experience and expertise in waterways engineering in the agreed subsidence damage control measures, as the Rhine is crucial to our future too.”

Kalthoff: “After a series of constructive negotiations, we are delighted to have reached a final agreement with the WSV. We have always cooperated in good faith in the past. Our final cost contribution will enable the Rhine bed to be stabilised in the long term and finally conclude the subsidence damage control work.”

Since mining activities have come to an end, the Rhine bed will be stabilised for the long term and final subsidence damage control work completed. This subsidence damage control work was planned by the WSV and is based on the expert reports compiled by the Federal Institute for Waterways Engineering and Research and the Federal Institute of Hydrology.

RAG agrees that these plans are a technically sensible conclusion to previous measures taken and is participating in the work with a final one-off contribution of approximately 15 M €. (RAG/Si)

For almost seven decades long RAG Verkauf GmbH, Herne/Germany, made a significant contribution towards energy security in Germany (Figure 1). A success story whose last chapter comes to an end at the turn of the year. On 31st December 2020 – a good two years after the closure of the last two RAG mines – the former marketer of domestic coal and at one time Germany’s largest coal importer ceases its activities – but not without paving the way for the future for the staff, as well as individual business and product areas.

“RAG Verkauf has always played a decisive role for the RAG Group”, says Michael Kalthoff, RAG Chief Financial Officer and Chairman of the Advisory Board of RAG Verkauf. Thanks to detailed market knowledge and very good customer contacts, the sales specialists always managed to reliably sell the extraction of the local mines, even in difficult times. An extraordinary achievement, which was also necessary in order to make possible the entire phase-out process of the German coal mining sector in a socially acceptable manner. Because the necessary public funding was not available for the extracted, but for the sold tonnes of coal. According to Kalthoff, the efforts of all staff of RAG Verkauf therefore deserve the special appreciation and recognition of the Group’s entire workforce.

Despite these successes and a successful restructuring and development process, it was still unavoidable to cease the business operations of RAG Verkauf at the end of the year. Because without the domestic coal mining sector, RAG is simply no longer the so-called “Best Owner” in the post-mining era. Kalthoff is very pleased that it managed to close the company without any upheavals in a joint effort with the social partner.

RAG Verkauf employed more than 200 staff at its peak; in November 2020 this figure was still 16. The funds for the socially acceptable reduction of staff essentially covered transferring people from one job to another through the sale of entire business units including job guarantee for the RAG Verkauf staff, as well as semi-retirement models. “My heartfelt thanks to all involved for the successful realisation”, says Kalthoff. “And in particular to our social partner, who was always by our side during the entire time.”

The Steelworks Agreement concluded in 1968 and extended in 1985 and the Century Contract concluded in 1977 with its supplementary agreements between the mining and electricity industry were the basis for the supplies of German coal until into the 1990s (Figure 2).

“Since 1996 the sale of German coal has been in competition with the global market price. We are proud that RAG Verkauf sold over 0.6 bn t of coal and coke since then”, says Manfred Müller, Chairman of the Managing Board. “Over all these years the objectives of RAG Verkauf were able to be achieved thanks to the high identification and motivation of our staff.”

Since the company’s foundation in 1953, at that time it was called Präsident Ruhrkohlen Verkaufsgesellschaft mbH, the company has pursued a major core business: the marketing of German coal. Supplies of fine coal, lump coal and low-grade coal to the power industry represented the largest business area. Apart from large energy supply companies, other customers included municipal utilities and municipal providers. Through wholesale channels in the heating market sized anthracite also went to small consumers such as nurseries and garden centres who do not convert it into electricity or also as domestic fuel to public buildings and private households.

The large customers of the iron and steel producing industry used coking coal for their coking plants, as well as coke and pulverised coal injection for direct use in their furnaces. RAG Verkauf was also responsible for the sale of foundry coke, crushed coke and coke breeze. There was also products on the “white side” of the coking plants, mainly gas and coal derivatives such as tar and ammonia, which are used in the chemical industry as a raw material for numerous products – from toothpaste to plastics through to fertilisers.

Other business activities were added over the years, such as the marketing of tailings, which arose with the coal production, and the material flow management for the resource-friendly treatment and recycling of various materials. This also includes the cost-optimised and on-time secure backfilling of the RAG shafts no longer in use, which is a basic prerequisite for the release of the mine areas from the mining authority and thus also for the establishment of companies and jobs.

Since the middle of the 1990s, RAG Verkauf has also marketed international coal in addition to German coal and in 1998 became Germany’s biggest coal importer. The company purchased the import coking coal required for the Prosper coke plant directly from producers in Australia, the USA and Canada. The sale of the coke plant to ArcelorMittal Bremen in 2011, in which RAG Verkauf played a role in the negotiations, did not change anything in this regard.

The business also changed with the end of the German coal mining sector. The direct marketing of coal and coke is completed. In order to give the “International coal and coke trade” business unit prospects for the future, RAG Verkauf sold it in August 2018 to Xcoal Energy & Resources Germany GmbH with its registered office in Essen. By the end of 2020, RAG Verkauf secured the commercial winding-up of German coal production and is further developing the material flow management business field, including the shaft backfilling. From 2021 this business unit will be continued under the umbrella of RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH. (RAG/Si)

On 30th September 2020, RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, submitted the planning notification for the drainage and discharge of mine water in the Ruhr at the three central water pumping sites Robert Müser, Friedlicher Nachbar and Heinrich (Figure 1) to the Mining Authorities of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

After the planning notification for the Haus Aden site and thus for the future discharge to the Lippe district was already submitted in the first quarter of this year, the RAG is also seeking a water permit in the Ruhr. In addition, the company is also planning the start of the approval process for the central water pumping site Lohberg this year.

Along the Ruhr the mine water is drained and discharged at the three sites Robert Müser and Friedlicher Nachbar in Bochum, as well as Heinrich in Essen. Mine water which is only slightly mineralised has already been discharged at the discharge points under view for several decades. The amount of the mine water to be discharged is not changing; it will remain at around 25 M m³/a altogether. The company is obtaining authorisation for instead of the previous 60 only 37 M m³ in order to be able to continue to discharge mine water in the case of deviations, such as extreme rainfall.

“The special feature of the water discharge consent for the Ruhr is that we are considering all three sites in one process”, states Project Coordinator Ralf Tinnefeld from the Permit Management Department (V-GM) on the special features of the procedure. This allows a holistic view of the objects of protection to be examined in the environmental impact assessment.

After a review of the planning notification the district government will send it to other public interest bodies such as authorities, associations and municipalities and invite them to the scoping meeting. At this meeting, the content and scope of the documents submitted by RAG in the water law procedure requiring an EIA will be discussed.

Even though the sites are being considered in one process, the application and approval are effected on a local level. “This is important as water rights always only have a limited term and can be cancelled and adapted at any time”, explains Thomas Brambrink, Department Manager for Water Discharge Consent/Monitoring at V-GM. “If this is the case at one site, a location-specific adaptation can be implemented without having to reopen the entire procedure.”

The water law approval procedure for the Ruhr is the next important element in the optimisation of mine water management of the RAG. (RAG/Si.)

RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, is putting its spoil tips in new hands: The Ruhr Regional Association (Regionalverband Ruhr, RVR) is taking over 20 redeveloped mining sites with a total surface area of 1,149 ha (Figure 1). These are primarily intended to be developed into natural sites and activity areas.

“The mountains of the Ruhr metropolitan area are more than viewpoints. As landmarks, they are points of reference in the urban landscape and represent a unique feature of this region with their ever-changing backdrop. The acquisition of further spoil tips offers us, as the largest spoil tip owner in the Ruhr region, the opportunity to significantly help shape the geographical development of our region,” explains RVR Regional Director Karola Geiß-Netthöfel. RAG is keeping its promise to make post-mining sustainable for the people in the mining regions, according to Peter Schrimpf, Chairman of the Executive Board of RAG: “Not only can our areas help with creating new jobs; they can also make the district more attractive. Needless to say, this also includes our spoil tips. However, we are unable to guarantee public use permanently. The RVR is clearly better suited to this.”

“We want to incorporate the spoil tips into the green infrastructure of the Ruhr metropolitan area and open them up to the people of the Ruhr region as well as tourists. They are not just decorative structures but rather important components in the creation of a climate-friendly region,” adds RVR representative Nina Frense. Some of the newly acquired spoil tips are already accessible to the public and are being used for leisure and tourism purposes, for local recreation or for energy production – in 2021, this already applies to nine spoil tips with a surface area of 380 ha. These are the spoil tips of Lohberg North (Dinslaken), Scholver Feld (Gelsenkirchen), Rungenberg (Gelsenkirchen), Mottbruch (Gladbeck), Graf Moltke 2 (Gladbeck), Elsa-Brändström-Straße (Lünen/Dortmund), Blumenthal 8 (Oer-Erkenschwick), Humbert (Hamm) and Groppenbruch (Dortmund).

Other spoil tips are still under mining authority supervision and will gradually be made accessible to people in the Ruhr region. The stages of the closure plan will be successively completed by RAG subsidiary RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH by 2035. Over the course of the next 15 years, the spoil tips Haniel (Bottrop), Canal Belt – Haus Aden (Bergkamen), Brinkfortsheide (Marl), Lohberg North extension (Hünxe), Sundern (Hamm), Radbod (Hamm), Scholven (Gelsenkirchen), Kohlenhuck (Moers), Graf Moltke 1 (Gladbeck), Wehofen East (Dinslaken/Duisburg) and Rossenray (Kamp-Lintfort) will be gradually handed over to the RVR.

“By handing the spoil tips over to the RVR, RAG will save on maintenance costs. In this way, we will be able to contribute some of these savings to the RVR’s maintenance costs for a period of 20 years. We are therefore playing an important part in the transformation of the Ruhr region and in the future public use of spoil tips,” states Michael Kalthoff, CFO at RAG.

The operating costs for the upkeep of the landscape and trail system amount to around 1.4 M € per year for the 20 spoil tips. RAG will contribute half of the maintenance expenses. The RVR has already commissioned external planning offices to look into if and how the reclaimed mining sites can be used for tourism, leisure and recreation. The result of the utilisation concept is that nine spoil tips with a total surface area of 742 ha are suitable for developing tourist facilities because of their site qualities.

The nine spoil tips that are of special interest for tourism purposes include Kohlenhuck, Lohberg North, Haniel, Mott-bruch, Scholven, Rungenberg, Brinkforts-heide, Haus Aden 2 and Humbert. Haus Aden 2, Lohberg North, Mottbruch and Brinkfortsheide are also being considered as potential sites for the International Garden Festival (IGA Ruhr metropolitan area 2027). The other eleven spoil tips will add to the green leisure and recreation infrastructure of the Ruhr metropolitan area and enhance it from an ecological point of view. Energy production systems have already been installed at six spoil tips, while other spoil tips are being considered as potential sites for wind turbines or solar plants.

Consultants involved in the utilisation concept estimated the investment costs for qualifying the spoil tips to amount to around 50.4 M €. The RVR will attempt to secure funding for this.

The RVR is the owner of 37 spoil tips to date. Many of them have already been specifically developed so that they remain visible landmarks. Works of art have turned them into symbols of the new Ruhr region. At the same time, they have been transformed into attractive areas for tourism, recreation, leisure and sport. (RAG/Si.)

RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, tested methods for further reducing PCB in pit water at pilot facility level in Bergkamen and Ibbenbüren. The initial results from this series of tests are now available. The investigation into the PCB content takes place at the margin of detectability in the trace substance range. The analytical process being used here for the first time needs further development. At the same time, project manager Christoph Schabronath emphasises that: “The environmental quality standard for PCB in water is being adhered to at both the Haus Aden and Ibbenbüren sites.”

RAG broke new ground with this project and exceeded the legal requirements. Both the systems engineering and the analysis in the trace substance area were challenging. The task was to filter the smallest traces of PCB out of a large volume of pit water and to analyse it.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, RAG operated a pilot facility on container scale for removing PCB from pit water at the Haus Aden site, followed by Ibbenbüren (Figure 1). Further developed technologies and operating methods from drinking water preparation were used, i. e. single- and multi-layer filters made from quartz sand and anthracite coal in the pit water side stream.

Schabronath explains: “The pilot facility ran smoothly at both sites. However, the examination of the PCB content took place at the margin of detectability in the trace substance range.” Reliably determining such small traces of a substance and assessing the results is extremely challenging, and requires experience and a procedure adapted to the specific case at hand.

Due to the low concentration of PCB in the pit water, the results were unclear and it was not possible to eliminate uncertainty in the analysis. With such minimal traces, parallel investigations into the background presence of PCB in air and water are necessary.

At the end of 2019, an expert group consisting of ministries, authorities, surveyors and scientists met to assess these results. This group of experts also sees a need for further research. RAG has committed to further developing the analytical method within the framework of a doctorate in cooperation with the TH Georg Agricola University (THGA) in Bochum. (RAG/Si.)

Residents of certain areas near the former West, Prosper-Haniel, Lippe, Auguste Victoria and Ost mines are entitled to file claims for the period from 2008 until the closure of the relevant mine.

Underground coal mining in the Ruhr region resulted in repeated tremors at the ground surface on some occasions. The frequency, temporal density and intensity varied depending on the area. In certain locations, these tremors were very noticeable. Following intensive negotiations, the RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has now reached an agreement with the VBHG (association of owners whose property or land has been damaged by mining). The two parties agreed that compensation will be paid for reductions in property value (§ 906(2) German Civil Code) resulting from past mining-related tremors. The agreement reached with the VBHG allows for compensation payments of up to 200, 400 or 800 €. This is based on a system of flat rates, which takes into account both the results of the VBHG’s relevant test cases and the regional differences in tremor intensity.

In addition, RAG offers owners, tenants and others with right of residence, who are not represented by the VBHG but have also been affected by such tremors in the past, compensation per affected residential unit at the same conditions. The flat-rate payment is made once, irrespective of the specific number of people living in a residential unit, to compensate any and all reductions to the property value caused by mining-related tremors.

Residents are entitled to claim compensation for the period between 2008 and the point at which the relevant mine was closed. Tremors and any resulting claims prior to 2008 are statue-barred in line with the agreed interpretation of the law. Claims for compensation can be submitted until 31st December 2020 in line with § 906(2) of the German Civil Code. Claims submitted after this deadline will not be considered. There is no right to reimbursement for costs relating to consultations with a solicitor.

Information on which residential units are located in areas significantly impacted by tremors and are therefore entitled to compensation can be found online at RAG’s citizen’s information service: www.bid.rag.de. (RAG/Si.)

The RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has restructured its property management duties. Consequently, it is continuing its ongoing restructuring process following the discontinuation of the German coal mining industry and against the backdrop of particular challenges in the post-mining era. Two changes in the management of RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH are associated with the restructuring: Uwe Penth, who up until now has headed up the Central Division of “Overall Planning and Business Management” at RAG, is becoming chair of business management and consequently the successor of Markus Masuth. Uwe Penth will also remain regional representative for RAG in the Saar region within his new function. A further appointment was made within the commercial division of RAG Montan Immobilien. Hans-Jürgen Meiers, who has been employed within the Central Division of RAG up to now, has taken over the role of commercial managing director Theodor Schlüter. Masuth and Schlüter have subsequently left the company. Ulrich Wessel remains responsible for the personnel division of RAG Montan Immobilien.

Erich Kometz, Director of the Central Division for Communication and Sustainability (CR) at RAG, went into retirement at the end of 2019.

More than a year has passed since the last two mines of the RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, ceased production. Despite the halt in production, however, work continues both above and below ground at the mines of Prosper-Haniel in Bottrop and Ibbenbüren in the Tecklenburg region. Indeed, there were a number of tasks that remained to be completed in a reliable and responsible manner.

The 21st December 2018 saw the close of the last chapter of the history of active coal mining in Germany, at the Franz Haniel mining pit. In front of 500 attendees and guests of honour – which included then President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Armin Laschet, Minister-President of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia – President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier accepted the last piece of coal produced in Germany. The key commemorative event held in Bottrop was a historic moment for the Ruhr District, the Federal Republic of Germany and Germany as a whole, which bid a solemn farewell to the country’s coal mining industry.

Now that the phasing-out period has run its cause, however, the closure operations remain – and they are by no means an easy task. Consequently, miners have been unearthing everything that needs to be disposed of for environmental reasons from the mine workings. This has included equipment and components that would ideally continue to be used in a variety of potential applications on the global market. In addition to carrying out the necessary preparation work on the Prosper-Haniel and Ibbenbüren mines, the RAG organisation has most recently sold off elements that particularly include ventilation systems, gearing mechanisms and strip material from the underground section, as well as equipment from the workshops above ground. These were then sold on to recipients in different countries, in particular Poland and Turkey – although some of this equipment also went to buyers in Germany.

At present, shafts 9 and 10 of the Prosper-Haniel mine near the Bottrop districts of Grafenwald and Kirchhellen are being filled in. Even the Haniel mine where the German President was presented with the last piece of coal is being prepared for filling, with RAG continuing to drain water underground here today. In future, the Hünxe shaft will become part of the planned central dewatering works in Lohberg. The Prosper-Haniel mine workings have shrunk considerably, and the length of the route network has been reduced from its former 120 km to a total of just 8 km (Figure 1). The end of the year 2019 marked the end of the mine employing any workers.

In Ibbenbüren too, significant progress has been made with closure operations over the course of 2019. The mine pit workings have been reduced by almost another 16 km to a total of 30.5 km. The company has also submitted a plan for the closure of underground operations to the district government. A first shaft, known as the Theodor shaft, has already been filled to the point of stability (Figure 2).

Closure operations for the other shafts as well as from the central mine workings with discontinuation of deep water drainage are progressing according to plan. The situation is similar for overground closure work: The first few buildings have already been handed over for subsequent use by organisations such as the municipal works for the Tecklenburg region. The number of direct employees in Ibbenbüren has been reduced from 609 to 271.

With regard to the plans of the RAG for dealing with mine water, upward extraction of mine water has already been approved for some underground mine workings – namely for Walsum, as well as for partial operations in Lohberg, Auguste Victoria, Haus Aden and Ibben-büren (Westfeld). Currently, approval procedures are being prepared for other mine workings or are already ongoing, as is the case for Prosper-Haniel, Zollverein and the Ostfeld section of Ibbenbüren. The final procedures for the approval of the upward extraction of mine water are set to continue until 2024 at the latest. The final construction measures must be completed with the Lohberg site by 2030 at the latest. (RAG/Si.)