International Mining History Conference 2006
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International Mining History Conference 2006 Application sent in by the Vlaamse Vereniging voor Industriële Archeologie (Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology) Flanders - Belgium 1.- The applicant The proposal to host the International Mining History Conference 2006 in Flanders 1 is introduced by the Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology (VVIA) 2 The VVIA has been established in 1978 and is thus one of the oldest industrial archaeology organizations in Europe. It is the platform of non governmental organisations and private initiatives for the study, the conservation, the interpretation and presentation of industrial and technical heritage. More than 40 regional and thematic organisations are affiliated to the VVIA, together with a number of company museums, private collections, and some local history or local heritage associations. As concerns this proposal the VVIA has concluded intensive negociations with • heritage associations in the mining area of Limburg, for example the Werkgroep Monumentenzorg Beringen (Architectural Heritage Working Party of Beringen), Stichting Erfgoed Eisden (Eisden Heritage Trust), Geschiedkundige Kring Genk (Local History Association Genk) • the Vlaams Mijnmuseum (Flemish Mining Museum Beringen) and the Museum of the Miner’s House (Eisden) • associations in charge of or campaigning for the protection of the mining heritage, e.g. vzw ‘De Koolmijn’ (Genk-Winterslag), vzw Elektriciteitscentrale Heusden-Zolder(non profit trust organizing restoration training in the former mine power plant), vzw Koninginneschacht (Eisden, volunteer trust preserving the concrete head gear of the Eisden mine), Kolenspoor vzw (historic railway on the old coal railway at As), de Koolmijn van Winterslag vzw (non profit trust organising cultural activities in the old mine buildings of Winterslag), Vereniging voor Behoud van het Mijnverleden vzw (Association for the Preservation of Mining History), het Vervolg (oral history of miners) • tourist organisations (as the provincial tourist board, the local tourists associations of Beringen, Heusden-Zolder, Houthalen, Genk, Maasmechelen-Eisden and Hasselt) • public authorities (the Flemish Museums Council, the Flemish Department for Historic Buildings, the cultural heritage department of the province of Limburg, the cultural departments of the cities of Hasselt, Beringen, Heusden-Zolder, Houthalen, Maasmechelen-Eisden These negociations resulted in the draft programme you can find below 1 Flanders is the Dutch-speaking region of the Federal Kingdom of Belgium. This is the northern part of the country, representing some 60% of the Belgian population (see: http://www.vlaanderen.be and http://www.flanders.be/ ) 2 See: http://www.vvia.be Moreover VVIA proposed the programme to the board of E-FAITH, the (young) European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage - during its meeting las January in Barcelona. E-FAITH agreed to endorse this proposal. As E-FAITH is campaigning to declare the year 2006 as the European Industrial and Technical Heritage Year the federation also agreed that the International Mining History Conference 2006 could become one of the anchor points of the Year EITHY’2006 2. The Limburg Mining Region Coal veins were discovered in the Campine area of Limburg (North-East of Belgium) at the beginning of the 20th century. An explanation for this late discovery can be sought in geological and economic reasons. In Limburg coal veins nowhere crop out at the surface, and they are burried under a shelf of at least 450 meters. On the other hand until the end of the 19th c. the traditional Walloon coalfields were able to meet the needs of Belgian coal consumption. This explains why - of course - there was until the turn of the century little or no interest to proof through experience the geological theories of prof. Guillaume Lambert, who postulated in 1876 the existence of a northern link between German and English coal basins, right through the north of Flanders. But during the last decade of the 19th c. the Walloon coal production stagnated, and because of the growing industrial demands a shortage of bituminous coal did spring up. Just before the Great War more than one third of industry coal in Belgium had to be imported from abroad. It was the successor of G. Lambert, prof. André Dumont, who started test borings in 1896, and who finally proved the theory. On August 1st 1901 a coal seam was reached near As, at e depth of 541 meters. His crew also soon discovered that the new coal basin had at least 25 meters of workable coal veins, spread over about 25 seams. On should compare the average thickness of the Limburg seams with those in Wallony, where they only rarely reached an average of 70 centimeters. The growing need of soft coal by industry thus immediately led to a real coal-rsh by mine-owners and steel-producers, including French, Luxemburg and German industrial and financial powers. On January 1st these already had executed more than 60 test borings, and at least 30 applications for mining concessions were introduced. To the displeasure of the applicants it took years before the Belgian government granted the first mining concessions. Indeed, in Parliament voices arose against the granting of national resources in perpetuity, while socialists held a brief for a revision of the old Napoleonic Mine Law and even called for a nationalisation of the new basin. Only 5 years after the firsts requests the first concession was granted to André Dumont by Royal Decree of August 1st 1906. During the same year seven other mining concessions were granted • 01.08.1906: concession André Dumont-sous-Asch (2960 ha) • 25.10.1906: concession les Liégeois (Zwartberg, 4180 ha) • 25.10.1906: concession Helchteren (3240 ha) • 25.10.1906: concession Zolder (3820 ha) • 03.11.1906: concession Genk-Zutendaal (3800 ha) • 26.11.1906: concession Beringen-Koersel (4950 ha) • 29.11.1906: concession Saint Barbara (Eisden, 2170 ha) • 29.11.1906: concession Guillaume Lambert (Eisden, 2740 ha) • 06.11.1911: concession Houthalen (3250 ha) • 23.11.1912: concession Winterslag (960 ha). Because of the great depth of the coal seams and the difficult shelf that would require enormous investments, the ‘Administration des Mines’ decided yo grant only large areas to powerful companies. One can compare with the average conceded area in Wallony which was only some 490 ha. Mid-1907 five companies (of which some would exploit more than one concession) had been established. But coal was only mined a decennium later. The aqueous shelf and its quicksand layers caused serious problems. Shaft sinking was only made possible by freezing the soil, a method that never before was used for shafts of 6 m diameter, nor till a depth of more than 600 m ! Coal exploitation only went slowly under way. It was not before the 1930s that a full production was reached. Winterslag (ca. 1940) The colliery of Winterslag - that was sunk in an area without underground quicksand layers - reached the coal seams on July 27th, some days before the First World War broke out. War of course slowed down the construction, but in 1917 first coal was brought to the surface: later the mine was accused of collaboration with the German occupation... All other collieries were forced to suspend their shaft sinking, or by order of the Germans, or because of a shortage of materials (e.g. explosives, iron). Some installations were confiscated and brought over to Germany, as the turbo- generators of the Beringen coalmine. Most of the shafts flooded. After the armistice most of the already undertaken work had to be done over Beringen, ca. 1950, seen from the tip heap again, which urged huge increase of the capital stock. This resulted into a much stronger control by large and foreign capital groups. For example: 40% of the capital of the Winterslag coalmine was held by the Schneider Company (Le Creusot, France). Only in 1922 coal production could start in the second colliery (Beringen), followed by • Eisden, 1922-1923 • Waterschei (coal mine ‘André Dumont’), 1924 • Zwartberg (coal mine ‘John Cockerill’), 1925 • Helchteren-Zolder, 1930 • Houthalen, 1939 The highest employment in the Limburg coal basin was reached shortly after the Second World War, when more than 44,000 miners were contracted. But at the end of the 1950s the international coal crisis broke out. The policy of the European Communities of Coal and Steel and the import of cheap oil caused the merge of the mines of Houthalen and Zolder (1964) and the closing down of the mine of Zwartberg (1966). The basin was closed from 1987 onwards. The first mine that stopped production was Waterschei (Sept. 1987), the last coal was brought to the surface in Zolder on September 30th 1992. These are the years of campaigning for the preservation of relevant remains of this history. Local heritage associations, newly formed groups of preservationists, the Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology and numerous amenity groups urged the Flemish government to preserve at least some buildings. Volunteers, former miners and mining engineers were trying to save machinery and to set up mining museums. The Royal Archives took over miles and miles of archival documents, city archives collected photographs and drawings,... Much destruction occurred, but the Flemish Minister for Culture and the Royal Commission for Historic Buildings and Landscapes decided set up an overall preservation policy and to protect the most representative remaining buildings: office buildings, workshops,