Lucrative deposits in the Erzgebirge
The public was already informed about the opening-up of a new deposit and the erection of a mine at Niederschlag near Bärenstein in the Erzgebirge in the lecture room of “Terra Mineralia” at the Freudenstein Castle in Freiberg/Saxony during the 104th Freiberg Colloquium in October 2011. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schilka of the Erzgebirgische Fluss- und Schwerspatcompanie (EFS) GEOS Halsbrücke informed participants that a ramp of 2 km in length has been set up at Niederschlag since October 2010 by EFS GEOS, a cooperation between a Freiberg-based engineering office and the nickel smelting plant Aue. In the meantime the EFS Fluss- und Schwerspatwerke GmbH was established – a company that continues the opening-up of the deposits. Further details were disclosed during the conference “Mineral Processing and Recycling” that took place in Freiberg in November 2011. From the middle of 2012 about 150 000 t/a of raw spar are to be extracted and processed. It is planned to set up an underground plant including primary crushing and preliminary refuse separation systems at Niederschlag as well as a processing plant in Aue with the process stages grinding, flotation and drainage. UVR-FIA GmbH received the order to develop the process. This company will also be the process licensor for the plant planning. During the above conference it was reported that good results have been achieved during first investigations into the separation of raw spar and wall rock by means of sensor-aided, dry sorting (NIR and X-ray technology). The mine at Niederschlag will be the first new mine in the Saxon Erzgebirge after the wall came down in 1989/90. Hf
