25 ‚Aufbereitung‘ at Dörnberg

In addition to the actual Willibald ore processing plant (A), other buildings on the western slope of the Dörnberg belonged to the former mining operation, including the washhouse (B) with the flat of the miner’s attendant (C), the laboratory (D), the compressor house (E) and the drill forge (F).

The „Kaue“ or „Waschkaue“ was the miners‘ changing and washing room. In earlier times, miners often came from home to their shifts in their work clothes and returned home in the same way, but later it was made possible to take off heavily soiled work clothes at the mine. Both work clothes and private clothes were initially stored in metal cupboards, later in space-saving metal baskets that were pulled up under the ceiling with chains.

The following tests were carried out in the laboratory: One bucket at a time was taken from the mined raw heap in the processing plant, ground and the ore content examined. In addition, the laboratory technicians checked the metal content in the concentrate and the residual ore content in the „mountains“ (heap gravel and silt mountains), which was never allowed to exceed 0.5 %. Another task of the laboratory was the regular examination of the surrounding waters for possible excessive pollution.

Until 1948, the compressor house produced the compressed air needed for the equipment and machines used in mining. Since then, due to the increasing demand for compressed air of the entire plant, it has been produced in newly built compressor stations underground. One of the old compressors, no longer needed after 1948, can be seen in front of the mining museum.