Millions Spent on Damage Caused by Old Mining Operations

In mid-June, an underground cavity opened up on a street in Annaberg-Buchholz. Mining engineers are currently investigating the sinkhole, explains Chief Mining Officer Bernhard Cramer. / Photo: Sebastian Willnow/dpa

In some years, more than 100 incidents of damage caused by legacy mining

Between 2020 and 2025, approximately 80 to 110 incidents of damage resulting from legacy mining were reported annually, explains Cramer. “Thanks to extensive hazard mitigation measures and preventive measures to address the consequences of mining, a downward trend in damage incidents is evident.” However, extreme weather events such as flooding and heavy rainfall could lead to significant damage even in areas surrounding former mining sites, as the years 2002 and 2013 demonstrated.

The Ore Mountains are particularly affected, where silver and cobalt were mined for centuries, and later uranium as well. “But reports of damage are also regularly recorded in the coal-mining regions of Zwickau, Lugau/Oelsnitz, and Freital,” explains Cramer. He cited the collapse of the Augustus shaft into a garden in Freital in 2022 and the ground collapse on Dörfler Weg in Annaberg-Buchholz in 2013 as particularly major damage incidents in recent years.

Ground subsidence from former uranium mining

Former uranium mining in the GDR also occasionally causes damage. For example, in December 2014, there was a ground subsidence near Shaft 38 in Bad Schlema. “This created a sinkhole measuring approximately 6 by 8 meters and about 10 meters deep,” explains Ina Mättig, spokesperson for Wismut, the federally owned mining remediation company. At the time, the shaft was considered to have been properly sealed; the cause was identified as a geological fault zone deep underground. All newly discovered cavities were filled with concrete.

Abnormalities were also detected in late 2023 in the spa park of Bad Schlema, which is located on former mining land. Monitoring data had indicated changes in the subsurface and the risk of a ground collapse. However, according to Mättig, more than a dozen boreholes failed to locate any major cavity. According to the information provided, there had previously been ground collapses there in the 1990s, which were filled in at that time.

Information on the sinkhole in Annaberg-Buchholz

Millions Spent on Damage Caused by Old Mining Operations

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In some years, more than 100 incidents of damage caused by legacy mining

Ground subsidence from former uranium mining

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