Former kali mine shaft at Teutschenthal, closed in 1982 after 80 years of kali and Steinsalz extraction, now undergoing formal Verwahrung as part of the GTS Grube Teutschenthal Sicherungs-GmbH underground backfill operation.
The Schacht Saale of the Grube Teutschenthal is one of two principal shafts of the former Kaliwerk Krügershall at Teutschenthal near Halle (Saale). It belongs to the Grubenfeld Angersdorf section of the former mine, which was operated until 1924 by the Hallesche Kaliwerke Aktiengesellschaft through the associated Gewerkschaft Saale and Schacht Halle. The Gewerkschaft Saale was founded in 1909/1910 and its Schacht Saale was sunk in the Angersdorf area immediately north of Halle.
The shaft lies 730 metres from the companion Schacht Halle. The Kalilager Staßfurt was developed across a streichende Entfernung of approximately 1.6 kilometres in the Grubenfeld Angersdorf. Since 1925 the Grubenfeld Angersdorf, including Schacht Saale and Schacht Halle, has been interconnected underground with the Grubenfeld Teutschenthal at the 713-metre Sohle level.
The Hallesche Kaliwerke, including the Gewerkschaft Saale, were nationalised in 1947 and subsequently incorporated into the VEB structures; by 1952 they had been merged with the Kaliwerk Teutschenthal. Kaliproduktion across the combined Teutschenthal complex ended in 1982. Schacht Saale is now undergoing formal Verwahrung: preparatory investigations began in 2010, Verwahrungsarbeiten began in 2019, and shaft closure is expected by 2026.
The mining site known as Schacht Saale is associated with two distinct legal entities: the Hallesche Kaliwerke Aktiengesellschaft, founded 1905 to exploit the Grubenfeld Angersdorf, and the Gewerkschaft Saale, a separate bergrechtliche entity founded by Bergwerksgesellschaft mbH in 1909 and formally acquired by the Hallesche Kaliwerke on 24 June 1910 through the purchase of the Gerechtsame of the 1909-founded Saale Bergwerksgesellschaft m.b.H. Although the Gewerkschaft Saale was bergrechtlich independent — its shaft-right being separately registered for Quotierungszwecke — it functioned entirely within and was wholly owned by the Hallesche Kaliwerke Aktiengesellschaft. The company name changed to Hallesche Salzwerke AG in 1929, and in 1937 it absorbed the Chemische Fabrik Kalbe GmbH and became the Hallesche Salzwerke und Chemische Fabrik Kalbe, later relocating its registered office from Schlettau to Calbe and eventually to Halle (Saale) in early 1945.
The Grubenfeld Angersdorf, in which Schacht Saale and the companion Schacht Halle lie, is situated on the northern wall of the Teutschenthaler Sattels (Nordostflanke) and on the southern limb of the Bennstedt-Nietlebener-Spezialmulde. The two shafts lie 730 metres apart. In the Grubenfeld, the Kalilager Staßfurt was opened over a streichende Entfernung of approximately 1.6 kilometres, proving to be very regularly deposited at a Mächtigkeit of up to 40 metres. The bauwürdige Mächtigkeit of the Steinsalz was approximately 50 metres. The hydrogeological conditions at Schacht Halle were difficult from the start — strong water inflows from the Mittlerer and Unterer Buntsandstein required extensive sealing work. Schacht Saale presented fewer difficulties in this regard.
The interconnected Grubenfelder of Teutschenthal and Angersdorf had been linked underground from 1925, when the Grube Teutschenthal became durchschlägig with the Grubenfeld Angersdorf at the 713-metre Sohle. Following the nationalisation of the Hallesche Salzwerke in 1947 and their overführung in Volkseigentum, the VEB Hallesche Salzwerke Angersdorf was on 1 January 1952 merged with the Kaliwerk Teutschenthal. The VEB was then incorporated through successive organisational changes into the VEB Kali- und Steinsalzbetrieb Saale, Werk Teutschenthal, and from 1988 into the VEB Kalibetrieb Ernst Schneller Zielitz, Werk Teutschenthal.
Kaliproduktion across the entire combined Teutschenthal complex was ended in 1982 for economic reasons, after approximately 80 years of kali and Steinsalz extraction. The mine had been affected by three serious Gebirgsschläge: in 1916, 1940, and on 11 September 1996. The 1940 event destroyed nearly all of the underground extraction field and killed 42 miners. The 1996 Gebirgsschlag, which occurred in the Ostfeld at 05:36 on a morning when the day shift had not yet descended, caused approximately 700 pillars to collapse in a chain reaction over 2.5 km² and produced surface subsidence of around 50 centimetres, registering as a magnitude 4.8 event perceptible up to 100 km away.
Since 12 May 1992 the Schachtanlage Angersdorf — including Schacht Saale and Schacht Halle — has been part of the GTS Grube Teutschenthal Sicherungs GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the Geiger Unternehmensgruppe since 2008, responsible for the Versatz and Verwahrung of the interconnected Grubenfelder Teutschenthal, Salzmünde, and Angersdorf. The GTS uses bergbaufremde mineralische Abfälle — predominantly filter ashes from waste incineration plants — for Versatz at a rate of over 200,000 tonnes per year, in order to reduce the Gebirgsschlagsrisiko from the approximately 12 million cubic metres of residual underground void space. Preparations for the formal Schachtverwahrung of Schacht Saale began in 2010; the Verwahrungsarbeiten themselves commenced in 2019. In May 2020 severe damage to the Schachtausbau was discovered in the lower section of Schacht Saale, affecting the construction schedule. Completion of the Schachtverschluss is currently expected in 2026. The Grubenfelder Angersdorf and Salzmünde, for which the state of Sachsen-Anhalt has assumed responsibility, have received approximately 43.3 million euros in public funding for Sicherungs- and Verwahrungsarbeiten since 2002.