Experience Bergwerk Merkers and Kesselfest in the Wintershall power plant: An unforgettable adventure

In March 2024 opened for AGO a gateway to a fascinating world: the experience of Bergwerk Merkers. Our valued customer, K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH, invited us to an unforgettable trip that led us deep into the history and wonders of nature.

With a warm “Glückauf” we were received at the visitor center of the mine and then entered the depths with the conveyor basket hundreds of meters. The highlight of our journey was undoubtedly the discovery of the crystal cave, a unique treasure of nature, located 800 meters below the earth. This stunning formation, discovered in 1980, is not only the deepest point of the mine, but also the National Geotope. A music-light installation specially composed for the crystal grotto brought the huge crystals to sparkle with up to one meter edge length and enchanted us all.

But that was not the end of our adventure. The ride continued to lead us to the former large bunker of the mine, a huge hall in which today the largest underground shovel excavator in the world stands. This place was transformed into a concert hall, located 500 metres below the surface of the day and offering the acoustics of a Gothic nave. Here we enjoyed exceptional music experiences that will remain in memory for a long time.

Afterwards, the boiler festival was celebrated in the Wintershall power plant, where we started the successfully installed steam boiler plant. The boiler system consists of two new two-burner large-scale water space boilers with a power of 50 t/h of superheated steam. A boiler has a weight of about 90 t, a length of about 11.5 m, a width of about 4.7 m and a height of about 5 m.