Slag Heap "Rheinelbe"

When the Consolidation colliery started production on Gewerkenstraße in 1863, another competitor was active around four kilometres further south alongside the Hibernia colliery: the Rheinelbe colliery started operations in Ückendorf as early as 1861. In 1871, 400 miners travelled into the three shafts and brought the coal to the surface. But not everything is coal. The worthless rocks are piled up. Just like the pyramid in Schalke, the Rheinelbe salg heap is built right next to the Rheinelbe colliery. The slag heap grows year by year. Even when the colliery is shut down in 1928, it continues to grow. Collieries from the surrounding area sent their stony "waste" to Ückendorf by the lorryload so that it could be disposed of here on the Rheinelbe slag heap. In between, the heap shrinks when the overburden from the mines is needed as building material. By 1974, the it covers an area the size of 27 football pitches. 3.1 million cubic metres of stone and rubble are piled up here.