The official approvals and permits for the deconstruction of the surface facilities of the Auguste Victoria 8 mine in Marl/Haltern, Germany, have now been obtained (Figure 1). The preservation order will be observed.
“The deconstruction work is scheduled to start at the end of February 2025 and is expected to take 15 months,” says RAG project engineer Ulrich Ostrawsky. The upper monument authority (Ministry for Homeland, Municipal, Construction and Digitalisation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia) has classified the hoist building, the shaft hall and the headframe as monuments. Therefore, they are not part of the demolition of the shaft site that now has begun. RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, is currently trying to find a solution for these three operating facilities that will enable the mining authority to terminate its supervision of the entire site in the near future.
When coal mining at the Auguste Victoria mine was discontinued in 2016, hard coal mining in the central Ruhr area north of the Lippe river also came to an end. Shaft AV 8 was filled in during 2017. The surface facilities are to be dismantled and the open spaces unsealed in accordance with the final operating plan. In the future, the area will be used as a backup location for mine water drainage. (RAG/Si.)
