Clara Pit

The Clara Pit (German: Grube Clara) or Clara Mine is a working mine in Oberwolfach in the Black Forest in Germany in which the industrial minerals, baryte and fluorspar are mined.

Clara Pit
1.2 cm, colourless and transparent fluorite alongside baryte from the Clara Pit
Location
LocationOberwolfach
History
Opened1898
ActiveGrube Clara
Closedopen
Owner
CompanySachtleben Bergbau GmbH und Co. KG

Importance

The pit is well known because, to date, over 375 different minerals have been found here (as at November 2004), including several that are very rare. The portal of the mine is located in the upper part of the Rankach valley. The processing plant is near Wolfach-Kirnbach in the Kinzig valley. Since 1898, the Clara Pit has mined over 3 million tonnes of baryte and over 2 million tonnes of fluorspar. Baryte is used inter alia in sound attenuation, radiation protection and the deep mining industry. Fluorspar or fluorite is used in the metal industry as a plasticiser (e.g. in welding electrodes) in the glass and ceramics industry and in the chemical industry for the production of hydrofluoric acid.

The pit, which is operated by the firm of Sachtleben Bergbau is the last active mine of the many that were once worked in the Black Forest.

Its most common minerals are azurite, baryte, chrysocolla, claraite, cornwallite, fluorite, goethite, clinoclase, copper, malachite, pyrite, pyromorphite, mimetite, stolzite, silver und scorodite.

Mineral tailings

On the mineral tailings site of the Clara Pit in Wolfach-Kirnbach the various minerals may be looked for in separate raw mineral ore spoil heaps.[1]

Museum

In the Oberwolfach Mining and Mineral Museum in the village of Kirche over 200 minerals from the pit are displayed.

Geology

The fissures in the mine are part of the Friedrich Christian Herrensegen Fault Zone in the Black Forest Gneiss Complex.

Type localities

The Clara Pit has given its name to the mineral, claraite and is also the type locality for the following minerals: agardite-(Ce),[2] arsenbrackebuschite,[3] arsenocrandallite,[4] arsenogorceixite,[5] arsenogoyazite,[6] bariopharmacosiderite,[7] benauite,[8] bismutostibiconite,[9] claraite,[10] cualstibite,[11] phosphofibrite,[12] phyllotungstite,[13] rankachite,[14] rhabdophane-(Ce),[15] tungstibite,[16] uranotungstite.[17]

References
  1. Mineralienhalde Grube Clara
  2. Agardite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  3. Arsenbrackebuschite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  4. Arsenocrandallite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  5. Arsenogorceixite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  6. Arsenogoyazite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  7. Bariopharmacosiderite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  8. Benauite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  9. Bismutostibiconite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  10. Claraite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  11. Cualstibite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  12. Phosphofibrite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  13. Phyllotungstite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  14. Rankachite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  15. Rhabdophane at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  16. Tungstibite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
  17. Uranotungstite at mindat.org. Retrieved 13 Apr 2017.
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