100 Years might seem long, but the eldest known mining activities of Limburg
are presumably the Flint miners of Rijckholt, who were active around 3000
years B.C. These miners have dug vertical pipes of 15 to 20 meters in what now
are the fields of Rijckholt to reach the Flint layers buried in the chalk
below. Existence of these activities has been known since the late 18
hundreds, but the professional archeologists were unable to re-open these
mines. In the 1920's a group of the University of Groningen dug a hole in
these fields that revealed a few of these mines, but that crater had to be
closed afterwards, burying everything again.
In the early sixties a group of DSM coal miners inspired by some amateur
archeologists among them, had a dream: let’s use our modern mining techniques
to reach these old flint mines, not vertical – creating an unsustainable
crater as the Groningen team had done – but by digging a horizontal corridor
from the valley flank reaching through the area of the old flint mines.
And this group of 20 to 30 volunteers realized their dream in their spare
time, digging mostly in weekends with materials collected from donations,
among others a lot of material donated by DSM as it became obsolete in view of
the closure of the coalmines. By 1972 the more than 130 meters long tunnel was
completed, opening well over 30 old flint mine chambers along side. They
created a project of global stature in the archeological world, enabling both
professional as well as amateur archeologists to yield a wealth of information
on how these eldest mines were created. This archeological monument nowadays
is also accessible for the public at large, as the group of volunteers, united
in the Werkgroep Prehistorische Vuursteenmijnbouw, part of the NGV
(Nederlandse Geologische Vereniging) organizes visits and excursions for
everyone interested.
For the maintenance of this unique project this group of volunteers is still
entirely dependant on donations. At the moment they are faced with the fact
that the installations that alight the project are worn-out by the highly
corrosive environment and have to be renewed.
