Měděný důl Bohumír
Previous History
GEMEC - UNION Company has experience with many different production activities and the unique closure and preservation of the old deep coal mine Jan Šverma in Žacléř. In order to preserve the old mining monuments of Podkrkonoší area for the future generations the non-profit organization, called Důl Jan Šverma Žacléř o.p.s. was founded. Its first task was to restore the tradition of Miners' Day celebrations of founding of the Jihlava Mining Law in 1249, as well as celebrations of St. Barbara.
These have been organized since 2007 in the Community Centre Žacléř. Since 2011, when the cooperation with the Gmini and Kowary city started, the celebrations have been organized together with our friends from Kowary.
In 2012, the mining museum was opened in Žacléř, in the Jan Šverma Mine buildings.
Projects completed by Důl Jan Šverma Žacléř o.p.s. and Gmina Kowary: Microprojekt of the Euroregion Glacensis „Waste manipulation – sharing of experience and cooperation“ organisation number: CZ.3.22/3.3.02/12.03081. They prepared also a grant application for the project „Opening of the Mine Bohumír Museum and opening of the Kowary Museum – new projects of tourism at Czech-Polish boundary“, registration number: CZ.3.22/2.2.00/12.03385.
The Bohumír Mine
The history of the mining at Jívecko is relatively young. It is connected to the industrial development in the 19th century.
On the Jivka bed beat Radvanic seam were exposure also in the site of present SK facility Jívka and particularly west from them in the direction to Radvanice. In coal seam hanging beds in Vernéřovice layers three ore veins of copper were exposure - chalcocite (Cu2S), bornite (Cu3FeS3), pyrite (FeS2), malachit [Cu2(CO3)(OH)2], azurit [Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2] and covellite (CuS).
The whole area is a part of a morphologically and geologically separate unit - the Intra Lower Silesian basin.
Bohumír mine is located in the GEMEC - UNION a.s. area, in the village Jívka, about 20 km east from Trutnov, and about 60 km southeast from Kowar.
The entrance to the mine adit Bohumír is located between the administrative building, the main production hall and the warehouse.
The visitors will enter the underground through the Bohumír adit and climb back the same way or come out through a newly constructed shaft, which is located close to the gatehouse of the SK Jívka complex. The security will be guaranteed by the natural ventilation, by restored wooden bracings in the corridors, by the construction of an extra exit from the mine and by a natural drainage of the tour route at the 1st floor.
The brief history of the mining activity and exploration works
Cadastral area Dolní Vernéřovice of the Jívka village was researched and mined during the 19th century.
The mining works were interrupted from 1866 to 1868 during the period of the Prussian - Austrian wars.
Then the mining works continued by opening of the Bohumír adit (Gottfried stollen) and by drainage adit of St. John (Johaness Erst Stollen) with the outfall to the stream Dřevíč in Jívka village.
Often interrupted mining activity was terminated before the end of the 19th century. In 1918 - 1920 the Mautner company renewed the mining. They built a new gravity preparation plant, and a metal works. There were sludge lagoons built on the surrounding pasture lands. At that time the deposit was opened by the main adit Bohumír and by secondary adits Jan and Terezie. The original steam engine at Bohumír was replaced by the electric one. The mine was unprofitable and it was closed again in 1926.
The results of the mining exploration done between 1939-1942 by the German company Deutsche Tiefbohr AG, were not very optimistic either.
The mine and the copper deposits were nationalized after the Second World War, and since 1954 there have been carried out exploration and mining works by the state company Východočeské rudné doly Horní Vernéřovice. In 1958 the mine started to be managed by the Rudné doly Jesenik n.p. There was a new copper treatment plant put into operation in 1955.The plant processed also ore mined on Slovak deposits. The processed ore was then transported back to Slovakia to smelters in Krompach. During this period, the mine reached the largest productivity.
The liquidation of the mine started in 1965. In 1970 the mining area Horní Vernéřovice was closed.
During the liquidation of the mine the usable equipment was removed and driven away, Treatment Plant equipment was removed, and transported to new factories built within RD Jeseník company. In 1978, the shaft Bohumír was walled up and the mine was flooded up to the level 4.
The main works of the Bohumír mine were listed in the registry of the old mine works by 2013. Since 2013, the adit Bohumír together with the subsequent underground sections are managed by the mine Důl Jan Šverma o.p.s.,Žacléř. Důl Jan Šverma Žacléř o.p.s. started the project Accessibility of the mine Bohumír in November 2013 by the preparation and excavation of shafts.
The reconstruction of the Bohumír adit was launched in the spring of 2014, and then the reconstruction of the underground corridor at the 2nd seam followed.
Before the reconstruction, the Bohumír adit was separated from the unreconstructed part with the wall, behind which the original wooden bracing was collapsed. The wall was demolished and the original bracing started to be reconstructed.
Currently, there are appropriate bracings in the first part of the Bohumír adit, the seam corridor on the 1st floor, the engine room number 1, and the exploration corridor number I.
