Up and down:

winding tower with two pit cages.

Innovative conveyor framework for support frame and container requirements.

Two counter-rotating conveyor frames with ore bins integrated at the top, travelled up and down in this steel framework construction.

Each of these conveyor frames was approx. 1.10 metres wide, 2.80 metres deep and over 10 metres high. They were suspended from the top of the respective haulage rope by means of a haulage hook. When one of the two conveyor frames was in the upper holding position in the shaft hall, its upper edge reached the edge of the hall roof.

The two identical conveyor frames had three floors. If miners or vehicles were conveyed on the lower and centre floors of the frames, this was referred to as ‘frame conveying’. This type of conveyor required manual control.

Frame conveyer on the base of the frames

Each base provided a space of 1.10 x 2.80 x 2.00 metres (W x D x H)

During ‘crew transport’ or ‘rope haulage’, the miners entered and exited the frames both at ground level and at the top of the galleries. There was room for 10 miners in each.

In the ‘product transport’ conveyer trucks filled with ore or waste rock, material wagons loaded with material and equipment, mine locomotives or ore loaders were used.

There was room for one vehicle on each rack floor, and tracks were situated on the rack floors for the rail vehicles.

The loading of the rack floors with wagons took place above and below ground as ‘push-through transport’

The vehicles always drove into the conveyor frames at the front, on the side facing them.

Container conveying in the ore vessels

If the ore was conveyed in the ore bins in the upper frame floors, this was referred to as ‘bin conveying’. This type of conveying could be fully automatic.

The two ore bins measured 1.10 x 2.80 x 6.00 metres (W x D x H) and each held four tonnes of ore. They were known as ‘skip vessels’ and could be filled and emptied automatically during ore conveying operations. They were emptied at the rear of the headframe, at a height of around five metres.