Stamp point 39 / Felswerke open-cast mine

HWN 39 is located on the outskirts of Elbingerode at the Felswerke open-cast mine.

From the loca­tion of the stamp box you can see the entire open-cast mine and get some help­ful expla­na­tions on the dis­play board to under­stand the form of lime mining.

The Elbingerode/Rübeland area is home to one of the high­est qual­i­ty and most impor­tant deposits of mass lime­stone in Ger­many. The lime­stone has there­fore been extract­ed here in open-cast mines for around 100 years. 

The lime­stone deposits in the Elbingerode/Rübeland area were formed in the Devon­ian peri­od around 350 mil­lion years ago. With a cal­ci­um car­bon­ate con­tent (_CaCO3) of 97% to 99%, a deposit of unusu­al puri­ty, homo­gene­ity and thick­ness was formed. 

For many cen­turies, the lime­stone was only extract­ed for local needs or for man­u­fac­to­ry-type oper­a­tions, e.g. mar­ble mills or small kilns in con­nec­tion with the local iron industry.

This changed fun­da­men­tal­ly with the con­struc­tion of the Rübe­land Rail­way from Blanken­burg in the Harz Moun­tains via Rübe­land, Elbingerode to Tanne between 1884 and 1886. A large num­ber of lime works were built along the rail­road line with­in a few years. 

You reach the stamp­ing sta­tion from the town cen­ter via Torstraße and fol­low the sign­post­ed paths.