Siegerland


The Siegerland is part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains, an ancient bedrock massif consisting of sedimentary rocks that have been reshaped by orogenesis. As the name suggests, slate is found here, although it is far rarer than the name might imply. The name ‘Siegerland’ isderived from the River Sieg, after which the city of Siegen is also named. It rises in the Rothaar Mountains within the municipal area of Netphen and is a right-bank tributary of the Rhine.

The Siegener Sattel is very rich in various ores. At the end of the Lower Devonian, tectonic fissures formed in which hydrothermal iron carbonate was deposited, A second phase of ore formation in the late Carboniferous and early Devonian led to the formation of veins containing pyrite, pyrrhotite, as well as sulphidic cobalt, nickel, zinc, copper, antimony, bismuth and lead ores. In a third phase, presumably during the Permian, veins suitable for mining formed, containing magnetite, red spar, sychnodymite, chalcopyrite, bornite, wittichenite and klaprothite. In addition, there was also shale, which was deposited 350 to 400 million years ago on the seabed of a sea that stretched across large parts of Europe. Under pressure from the overlying strata, the clay sludge was transformed into claystone. During the Variscan orogeny, it was folded and, due to intense lateral folding pressure, split into thin, parallel laminations.

The result of these geological conditions is a long and diverse mining tradition, meaning that the list here consists solely of show mines. However, there is also a bunker hidden behind one of the entries.