Lignite mining
You are standing on the site of an abandoned lignite mine, which began operations in 1845 to meet the demand for power at the beginning of industrialisation.
The mine was called Güte Gottes (the goodness of God). The mine building and office was located just a few meters to the south, about where the slip-road for the motorway to Darmstadt is.
For centuries it had been known that black gold could be found near Hochheim. However, the first serious attempt to mine coal was undertaken in 1826. This mine was located near the Main and operations ceased just two decades later.
In more recent times, coal was discovered during the construction of the municipal sewage plant and even more recently when the hydro-electric power station was built next to the Kostheim locks.
The lignite
of this area is found within the Tertiary Cyrena Marl beds. There are two coal seams separated by a 0.5 to 0.7 m thick intermediary layer. The upper seam was up to 48 cm thick and produced an earthy pitch coal. The lower seam of pure pitch coal was up to 120 cm thick.