Cäcilia Mine, Freiung, Stulln, Schwandorf District, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germanyi

Regional Level Types
Cäcilia Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Freiung	Village
Stulln	Municipality
Schwandorf District	District
Upper Palatinate	Administrative District
Bavaria	State
Germany	Country

History:
1933 - The Kallmünzer mine was founded, working the Cäcilia I pit for fluorspar (the main mineral) and baryte (as a secondary mineral) on four levels up to 180m depth with one main shaft and three ancillary shafts.
1936 - The company ‘Saline Ludwigshalle AG’ from Bad Wimpfen in the Baden-Württemberg region of southern Germany, acquired the Kallmünzer mine along with its fluorspar pit. The mine was renamed Grube Cäcilia (Cäcilia Pit/Mine), also sometimes spelled Cäcilie. The Cäcilia II shaft became the main shaft with a depth of 86m. The Marie shaft, formerly part of the Freiung II mine, and the Reichhart shaft, formerly the Freiung I mine, are used as ancillary shafts. The preparation of a processing plant, which began in 1935, was also completed in 1936 with a push truck, six jigs, vibrating sieves with crusher and washing drum. Workforce for 1936: 24 employees.
1938 - The 86m level was driven about 350m to the east, with a width of 1.20m. The output is 800 tons per month, with a daily output of 35 - 40 tons. 20 tons of spar for acid production and 20 tons of cement spar were sold every day. 71 people are employed.
1939 - A total of 450 tons of spar was delivered to ‘Saline Ludwigshalle AG’ at Bad Wimpfen and 300 tons of spar went to Romania.
1940 - June 1,300 tons, October 1,500 tons, and December 1,450 tons of fluorspar were extracted. The average workforce was 90 people per year. At the end of the year, 20 French prisoners of war arrived, including 5 miners. This reinforcement was used to expand the Cäcilia II shaft in order to develop it into a double-strand shaft which reached the 27m mark by the end of the year.
1941 - Processing was expanded and a foreign labour camp was built. The Cäcilia II shaft was sunk further to 150m. 71 men, 9 women and 5 employees are employed with 40 men working underground, 20 of whom were French prisoners of war.
1942 - The workforce was 121 men, 39 of whom were prisoners of war. 1943 - The Cäcilia II shaft reached a depth of 150m. The shaft was later driven under by the 180m level and then broken up.
1944 - The new double-strand Cäcilia II shaft was completed, which was in operation until 1987, first as the main production shaft of the Cäcilia I pit and later for pumping water out of the Hermine pit/mine.
1945 - In May, all the shafts and underground facilities were destroyed as a result of bombing the power grid at the Upper Palatinate Works which supplied the Stulln area and resulted in a power failure there. It should be mentioned that during the entirety of World War II not one mine in the Stulln area was the target of Allied attacks. During the course of 1945 only exploration work and drainage was carried out at the Cäcilia mine.
Between 1945 (August) and 1948 lignite mining began at the Cäcilia fluorspar mine. Because of the coal crisis, the Cäcilia miners worked the brown coal that was mined in the area. During this period the mine became known as the Cäcilia lignite mine with a daily production of 80-100 tons towards the end.
1947 - Fluorspar extraction was resumed at the Cäcilia mine and the lignite mining operation eventually ceased in 1948.
1950 - Crude fluorspar extraction: 24,500 tons, saleable fluorspar: 21,324 tons and heavy spar 4,752 tons. Workforce in December: underground workers 82, workers above ground 97 and white-collar workers 13.
1951 - The sinking of a blind shaft was started from the 180m level to an initial depth of 210m.
1952 - The Cäcilia mine became the top producing fluorspar mine in Germany with an average daily production of 180 tons.
1954 - The blind shaft was extended from 210m to 290m depth.
1956 - A 7th level, which was 290m deep and reached by means of a blind shaft, was put into operation.
1960 - ‘Kali-Chemie AG’ (Hanover) took a stake in the mine company and mining methods were further developed in the 1960s. The raw spar obtained from some neighbouring mines was also sent for processing at the Cäcilia mine.
1974/75 - During the winter, all mining ceased at Cäcilia.
1975 - In March/April the Cäcilia mine was finally closed. The Cäcilia II shaft was taken over by the company ‘VAW Flußspat-Chemie GmbH’ (Stulln) as a drainage shaft for the Hermine mine. However, although actual mining operations had ceased, the Cäcilia mine had one of the few processing plants in the Wölsendorfer district and therefore raw material from other mines was also delivered there. Large amounts of fluorspar which varied in composition, some of foreign origin too, was subsequently stored and processed at Cäcilia.
1978 - The processing plant was sold to Thailand.
1987 - Due to exhaustion of the fluorspar deposit, on 27th May the Hermine pit became the last mine in Wölsendorf to cease operating. With its closure, the former Cäcilia II shaft was superfluous and the upper part of the shaft was filled in.

Over the years, the main operations of the Cäcilia, Erika and Hermine mines had become interconnected underground because their main corridors were all linked. Together, these three mines had provided more than half of the total production of fluorspar in the Wölsendorfer river area.

Parts of the surface facilities at the Cäcilia mine were demolished before 2000 and other buildings were demolished after 2005. The remaining buildings were also due to be demolished when the site was sold although there are still several derelict structures to be seen as of 2020.

Minerals:
Fluorspar from the Cäcilia mine shows a predominance of light green colour varieties. Transparent crystals with an absorption of brown colour partly in the inner cube have been found. In addition, traces of dark purple on the cube edges near the outer edge have also been found in lighter crystals. However, the fluorite is not particularly rich in its crystal forms and it is extremely sensitive to light and heat. It has been noted that specimens have faded after a few days in strong light and the warmth of a thumb on a cold crystal cube would be enough to trigger the finest cracks in it. Fluorite crystals of a previously unknown formation were also discovered in a pocket at the Cäcilia mine in 1963. Scalenohedron-like crystals, mainly in baryte and covered by a yellowish white baryte tinge or by a fine mineral gravel, were found with pyrite or marcasite growing on the baryte. The underside of the fluorite crystals, on the other hand, was usually free and the cubic shape of the fluorite could still be recognised. The delicate, wine-yellow etched fluorite crystals contained very fine-needle cinnabar crystals as inclusions with some fluorite of the scalenohedron type entirely filled with cinnabar needles. Cäcilia mine scalenohedron fluorite specimens are very seldom available and fine examples are rarities because they were quickly reserved when recovered and have disappeared into collections. Most specimens that are now offered for sale originating from the pocket are NOT in fact scalenohedron crystals, only etched fluorites.

In addition to the main fluorspar product, minerals from the mine included baryte, quartz (amethyst and eisenkiesel was not uncommon), drusy calcite, and dolomite (often scattered on quartz or baryte crystals). Pyrite and chalcopyrite were found throughout the mine, scattered on calcite, dolomite, baryte or fluorspar. Dense greenish yellow marcasite was found in places too. The chalcopyrite occurred partly as bluish tinged grains, dark green to yellow, but also in black shades. Malachite often resulted from weathering of the copper ores and silica copper (chrysocolla) occurred as a result of crystallised oxidation.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality