Zeche Pluto — Schacht Wilhelm Herne · Nordrhein-Westfalen · Germany

The roots of Zeche Pluto lie in 1850, when the first Probebohrungen were undertaken in the community of Bickern, then belonging to the Amt Herne. In 1854 the Mutung for the fields St. Remigius, St. Michael, and St. Nikolaus was entered under the designation St. Nicolaus. The first Feldbesitz lay with the Schwelmer Freiherr Levin von Elverfeldt and the Opherdicker Kammerherr von Lilien.

In 1855 the Mutung for the St. Nicolaus field was extended. In 1857 the name Pluto appeared for the first time, derived from the Greek god of the underworld. In the same year the sinking of Schacht 1, named Schacht Thies after the Essener Bergamtsassessor Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Thies (born 21 July 1808 in Letmathe, died 9 October 1870 in Bonn), began near the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn line.

The Carboniferous was reached at 149 m depth in 1858. In the same year a Feldertausch was conducted: the Alma field was relinquished in exchange for part of the Namur field, which was consolidated with the St. Remigius field. The colliery was renamed Zeche Pluto in 1858.

The Berechtsame comprised seven Geviertfelder totalling 1.56 million Quadratlachter. Production from Schacht Thies commenced for internal use in 1860. In 1861 the installation received its connection to the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn.

Full commercial production began shortly thereafter. In 1863 a coke works was established. By 1865 annual output had reached 104,000 tonnes.

In order to improve ventilation, a Grubenlüfter was installed in 1870 and a new coal preparation plant erected. In 1873 sinking of Schacht 2, named Schacht Wilhelm after Kaiser Wilhelm I, began approximately 1.3 km north of Schacht Thies in the Nordfeld. By 1874 Schacht Wilhelm had reached the Carboniferous at 180 m depth.

The first and second levels were set at 203 m and 230 m in 1874. By 1884 output had reached 500,000 tonnes with approximately 2,000 workers. In 1883 the first coke ovens of a novel radial design by the French engineer Friedrich Laumonier were put into service at Schacht 1 — the first radially arranged coke ovens in the Ruhr.

In 1893 Schacht 3 was sunk as a Doppelschachtanlage with Schacht 2; during the sinking a brine source was encountered, which by 1893 led to the establishment of a spa resort, the Thermalbad Königin-Luise-Quelle in Wanne-Eickel, one of the strongest Solequellen in Germany. In 1899 the colliery passed to the Aktiengesellschaft Schalker Gruben- und Hüttenverein, which needed coal reserves for its ironworks and steelworks in Gelsenkirchen-Hüllen, and a cable aerial ropeway connected the coal from Schacht 1 directly to the furnaces. The Schalker Verein was itself acquired by the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG in 1924, which incorporated the Zeche Pluto into the Gruppe Gelsenkirchen of its Bergbau division in 1926.

In 1906 a ventilation shaft (Schacht 5) and a further production shaft (Schacht 7) were added. By 1913 output had reached 1.25 million tonnes with a coke output of 372,000 tonnes. In 1918 Schacht 7 entered service, and from that point Schacht 2 was converted to a ventilation shaft; the production now ran via Schacht 3 as the main winding shaft of the Anlage 2/3.

In 1922 the Zeche Unser Fritz was acquired; it remained nominally independent until 1929. On 26 June 1927 the Kokerei at the Thies installation was closed, the Thies Grubenfeld was added to the Wilhelm Baufeld, and all coal output was concentrated at Schachtanlage 2/3. The canal harbour at the Rhein-Herne-Kanal provided access to the Konzernhafen Grimberg, which also served the mine's transport needs.

Most surface installations at the Thies 1/4 site were demolished at this stage, though the shafts remained open. On 31 March 1928 the Kokerei at the 2/3 installation was closed. In 1930 the colliery employed 2,425 workers producing 769,000 tonnes.

In 1931 the Baufeld Alma, with the installations 1/2/5 of the closed Zeche Rheinelbe & Alma, was incorporated; the Berechtsame thereby reached 10.5 km². The coal from these Alma shafts was worked out and the shafts transferred to the Zeche Holland (Wattenscheid) in 1933. In 1941 an explosion on the coke works killed nine workers.

In 1944 heavy Allied bombing of the colliery area killed 125 prisoners of war in a camp on the colliery grounds. Despite severe damage the colliery resumed coal production shortly after the war's end. In 1953 the Doppelbockstrebengerüst designed by Fritz Schupp was erected over Schacht Wilhelm — referred to as Schacht 3 in the Anlage 2/3 designation — providing the central production shaft until closure.

This headframe has been compared locally to the Doppelbock at Zeche Zollverein and called the 'kleine Weltkulturerbe'. By 1955 output had recovered to 792,000 tonnes with 2,870 workers. In 1963 Schacht Thies was backfilled.

In 1964 Schacht 6 was abandoned. From 1957 to 1962 trials of hydromechanical coal winning — the first such trials in Germany — were carried out at the Pluto installation. By 1970 output was 977,000 tonnes with 2,102 workers; in 1971 a joint Werksdirektion was formed with the Zeche Consolidation.

In 1975 output exceeded 1 million tonnes with only 1,640 workers. On 31 March 1976 coal production was halted and the Zeche Pluto was merged with the Bergwerk Consolidation, to which the Baufeld and all surviving shafts were transferred. The headframe over Schacht Wilhelm was placed under Denkmalschutz in 1999.

The Schachthalle was demolished between September 2020 and January 2021 due to poor structural condition. Today the headframe stands without its Schachthalle; in the surviving Tagesanlagen over Schacht Wilhelm operate the Grubenrettungswesen and Grubenwehr der DSK, alongside the Zentrale Leitwarte der Wasserhaltung of the RAG. The former Tagesanlagen over Schacht Thies are used by the Technisches Hilfswerk Wanne-Eickel.

The LWL erected a Maßregelvollzugsklinik für Forensische Psychiatrie on the colliery grounds at the Wilhelmstraße west of Schacht Wilhelm between 2008 and 2011.