Friedberg Pit

The Friedberg pit is located in the central Hesse municipality of Biebertal at the foot of the Dünsberg. In the pit, ore was mined between 1826 and 1961, first in open-cast mining and then underground. Meanwhile, the pit has been closed.

The first documented mining activities in the district of Fellingshausen date back to 1826. At that time, J. W. Buderus’ sons, based at the Friedrichshütte near Laubach, conducted exploratory trials in the district. On April 30, 1836, a mining claim was requested by Justus Kilian concerning an iron ore deposit in the Buchholz district. The claim was granted to him on October 3, 1836. On December 9, 1839, Kilian applied for the granting of mining rights for the entire district of Fellingshausen, arguing that he had only found occurrences of brown iron ore in patches during the exploratory drilling. According to Kilian, this was necessary to extract a proper deposit. On February 17, 1840, Kilian, who had established another ironworks at the Justushütte in Weidenhausen on the Salzböde in 1837, was granted the district of Fellingshausen for iron ore mining.
On April 18, 1842, the mining authority granted Wilhelm Briel a mining claim for the Buchholz ditch upon request, which he let lapse after a year. Another mining claim was issued in 1847 to Ph. Gath, Joh. Ph. Gath, and H. Später from Altenkirchen near Weilburg. This claim was extended several times in the following years, until finally, in November 1849, the claim was transferred to C. Haibach from Altenkirchen.

Wikipedia