Idrija Mercury Heritage Management Centre, Bazoviška 2, SI-5280 Idrija
Ownership
Public
Owner
Republic of Slovenia
Local / Original ID Number
/
Type of Object
Mine
Description
Short description
The impact crusher is placed in the sorting plant building in the area of the former smelting plant of the Idrija Mercury Mine. It consists of the following components, followed from the top down: flat bunker lock, steel sectional feeder, presorting vibrator, impact crusher, pressing table, resonant horizontal sieve, reversible gutter conveyor belt, “kojca” for manual ore sorting and end bunker.
Measures
/
Materials
Cast iron, electric motors, sheet steel, plastics, wood
Dating
1957
Author / Producer
Trbovlje Hardware Factory
Picture attachments
Original use
The smelting plant was modernised in 1956, when the sorting plant building was built. Then the building was equipped and the crushing-separation device, which was used until the mercury production was shut down in 1995, was placed inside it. The crushing-separation device crushed bigger pieces of ore, and then, through different resonant sieves and sliders, the ore was sorted in the bunkers, according to its granulation. The uncrunched ore slipped from top smaller bunkers, through flat, strongly regulated closure to the presorting vibrator with a thick mesh, which held the pieces larger than 10 mm. The larger pieces were navigated into the impact crusher, which crushed the ore up to 60 mm. Thence the ore slid through the canal on the large resonance sieve, which sifted the pre-pieces smaller than 40 mm. Other pieces, that did no fall through the sieve, slid through the gutter into the “kojca”, where it was manually sorted by the miners. From the collection bunkers the ore slid to the feeder. The latter fed the ore into the rotary furnace, where the ore was smelted at 800 °C to 900 °C.
Present use
Mining facilities in the smelting plant area were mostly replaced with new production halls with new contents. In the middle, under the sorting plant and near the furnaces facility, the new visitors’ centre came to life. There, the permanent exhibition “From Ore to Mercury Drops” is displayed. Within the exhibition, the crushing-sorting device represents the method of crushing and ore sorting. All the facilities and the machines in the smelting plant area have great historical value. This area represents a final stage of development in the 500-year-long history of mining and tradition of smelting, since its devices and objects were operating all until the mine was closed.
Original location
The area of the Idrija Mercury Mine Smelting Plant, the sorting plant building – 2357 Idrija – town, lot no. 507/3 (including building no. 1613)
Present location
No changes
STATE OF CONSERVATION
History of conservation:
2017: The crushing-sorting device was renovated within the first phase of the arrangement of the entire Smelting Plant complex and the revival of the activities in it. The sorting plant renovation and the construction of the new visitor centre cost EUR 2,322,810.
Present state
good
Necessary activities:
Regular seasonal maintenance.
DOCUMENTATION
Addresses / collections / links etc. where further in-depth information is accessible:
- CUDHg Inventory Book;
- Ordinance on the proclamation of the technical heritage in Idrija and its surroundings for cultural monuments of national importance. Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia no. 66/01, 55/02, 16/08;
- Cultural Heritage Protection Act – ZVKD-1. Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia no. 16/08, 20/09;
- Čar, Jože, Terpin, Rafael. Stare žgalnice živosrebrove rude v okolici Idrije. Idrijski razgledi, 50/1, 2005, p. 80‒105;
- Kavčič, Ivica. Živo srebro: Zgodovina idrijskega žgalništva. Založba Bogataj, Idrija, 2008.