Coal Mine Prosper Haniel II – Conveyor Transfer Station

In December 2018 Prosper Haniel, the last active coal mine of the Ruhr area, was closed down. Before the end “Sounds of Changes”-project worker Konrad Gutkowski had a last chance to document its disappearing sounds.

The coal mine in Bottrop was founded in 1856. Regular mining began in 1863 with about 60.000 tons of coal per year. Until 2016 it reached a depth of 1240 metres and mined 1.8 Million tons of coal per year. During the “Wirtschaftswunder” in the 1950s up to 12.000 coal miners worked at Prosper Haniel. Structural change and the decline of coal mining began in the late 1960s. Due to high production costs in Germany coal has been increasingly imported from China, India and the USA. One after the other the coal mines in the Ruhr area were closed down.

At the conveyor transfer station the mined coal is transferred from the conveyor chain or face conveyor to the bigger conveyor belt. The conveyor chain gathers the coal after it has been scraped off at each face while the larger conveyor belt system transports the coal to the surface. During the recording both conveying systems were empty. The rattling of the chain and the flapping of the rubber belt are clearly audible.

Sound: Jens Meißburger

Photo: Jochen Balke (Sirius Images)