EDUARD URANIUM MINE AT JACHYMOV

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80S01540R006400100004-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 28, 2012
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: March 7, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/28: CIA-RDP80S01540R006400100004-2
i. 1 50X1-HUM
INFORMATION REPORT INFORMATION REPORT
CENTRAL ` INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Sees. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
COUNTRY Czechoslovakia
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
REPORT
Eduard Uranium ]dine at Jachymov DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES 6
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
Location.
The Eduard mine was located at the north end of Jachymov, about 300 in. West
of the road leading north from Jachymov to Bozi Dar. The area covered by
the mine was about 1,200 me long (north-south) and 600 in. wide. It was fenced
with a double barbed-wire fence about 3 in. high.
2. General layout of the mine and description of procedure.
The mine had six levels, and a seventh was being sunk. The equipment was
modern, and mining of dead rock was carried out by means of a scoop.attach-
ment. Two automatic scoops were fitted to a two-storied cage and filled
with dead material automatically on the sixth level. The individual levels
had shafts down which dead material was poured. The dead material fell to
the sixth level, where the shaft ended in an automatic fitting that switched
on when the cage stopped, filling both scoops on the cage automatically.
Continuous mining through the whole of the six hours' working time on each
shift was thus made possible. The levels had enough empty trucks, since
these were not taken to the surface, and a 15-car train was emptied at the
shaft in 10 minutes. At the surface, the scoops, the capacity of which was
0.75 cubic meters, were emptied automatically where the cage stopped at the
loading station. The surface cars were filled there to carry material to
the slag heap. The capacity of the cars was 1.2 cubic meters. At the mine
cage, the cars were checked, and any containing radioactive material were
sent to the sorting rooms. This check was carried out here in addition to
an official checking of the cars as they were emptied, with apparatus for
measuring the material before it was emptied into the shaft. (This apparatus
was not very sensitive.) The official at the shaft sent the car by the normal
method to the mine cage when its radioactivity had been ascertained. Since
the son who operated the cars were paid according to the number of cars
they removed, they tried to make the circulation of full and empty cars as
smooth as possible.
(Note: Washington distril;.ytion indicated by "X"; Field distribution by
7 March 1955 '
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3.
lt.
The tunnels had a regulation measurement of 270 x 250 cm., and most of them
were laid with double tracks for trolley transport. On each level there was
a center around the cage where the tunnels running in all directions were
connected. Most of the tunnels followed veins and were named after the veins
they followed; e.g., Mala Krasna east (vychod) - MKv,.and the face was numbered
according to the levels MKv, level No. IV - sections 00 - 014. These sections
were workings where veins had been opened. The workings were each 50 m. apart
and were numbered from 00 to 011. The system of numbering the veins was
perfectly worked out and on the technical side it was clear. A vein called
AC (Aktivni cervena - radioactive red) continued the MK vein, and the first
section in vein AC, that is, section 00, was connected with the last one in
WK - 014. All the tunnels and faces on one level were connected in a similar
manner.
5. Two-thirds of the workings were in soft rock (degree of hardness 8) (Svycar,
MK, F, and AC veins), rich in ore and pitchblende. The richest vein of pitch-
blende, about 20 cm. in diameter, was Svycar (kidney type), and in September
1953, Svycar yielded an average of 100 kg. of pitchblende per shift. Veins
rich in red pitchblende were found in working'MKv - IV - 010. In workings
MKv - IV - 08, 09,9 0139. and 011 the yield of ore was in veins up to 30 cm.
thick, strongly radioactive, containing small veins of powdery pitchblende,
black, looking like powdery black soot, making this vein of ore high in radio-
activity. The vein called Aktivni cervena was a vein of ore of medium radio-
activity, reddish in color, and rea.,ning a thickness of 10 cm. The richest
workings were ACv - IV - 00 and 01. Fiedler tunnel was completed and the
workings were just being opeied.2 There were three tunnels, north, middle
and south, with cross-cuttings, ends of corridors, and parti-walls (sic) at
a distance of 50 m., and these workings already showed a rich yield of pitch-
blende, so that it was estimated that Fiedler would be the best vein, after
Svycar, and the administration was trying to speed up opening work on it.
The principal veins ran through all the levels.
6. Coin'iections with other mines.
On the third level, the Eduard mine was connected by a shaft with the second
level of the Rovnost mine, and the whole of the fifth level of Eduard mine
belonged to Rovnost and was part of Rovnost's fourth level, coming under its
administration, the ore taken outbeing'transported thither also, only the
dead material being taken out through the Eduard mine. No mine cages stopped
at the fifth level in Eduard mine, and the employees entered it through the
Rovnost mine. The fourth level of Eduard mine was connected by a tunnel
called the Elias tunnel with the Elias mine. Access to the Elias mine was
forbidden to prisoners, but sometimes prisoners went there on trucks in spite
of the prohibition, only however those who knew the pit from former times.
Working *
The sections or faces were kept in order in the mine, and the mine was managed
on the principle that both the free employee and the prisoner must leave his
section in the same orderly state in which he took it over; i.e., it must have
the prescribed measurements, the ground tidied, and blasted material cleared
away. If any face was not in order, the worker, be he free or prisoner, was
not paid for the work he had done; this meant that the number of meters covered
was not measured and the employee was only paid for the ore he had mined. The
meters covered were only paid one month later if the working was found to be
in absolute order for the next worker taking over. By this means, cases such
as those occurring in Eva mine -,,there the prisoners had to clean up the working
after the civilian workers, ware avoided. There were, of course, some dis-
advantages for the prisoners in Eduard pit, since the civilian employees had
taken over the best workings for ore to fulfill the plan and get the extra
percentage in excess of the plan which they lost by having to do the cleaning
up.
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7. Output.
On an average, 1,200 trucks, capacity 1.2 cubic meters, of material was mined
per shift. The planned quota for ore was three trucks per level per shift,
and this quota was approximately maintained but not exceeded. The average
yield of pitchblende per level per shift was 100 - 150 kg., but this was not
specified by plan. In actual fact, up to 300 kg., of pitchblende was mined,
but 50% was debased t Omake ores in order that the planned quota might be
maintained.
8. Processing and removal of ore.
The ore taken out was roughly sorted in the sorting shop, put into wooden
crates, and taken by truck to the Expert Technical Control at Vykmanov. The
trucks went twice a day. The number of them in not known; the'type was the
10-ton Tatra 111. A road about six meters wide, well-kept with a rolled
surface j led through the gates to the Jaohymov - Bosi 1lar road. It also
connected all the buildings in the mine area.
9. to ee.
a. Number of em loea. About 350 prisoners and 200 free employees worked
on each shrim
b. Pay and norma. These were the same as in all the other Jaahymov minea.1
c. Feeding arran ments. The civilian employees had their meals in the
canteen, which was outside the mine area, about 200 in. east of the main
gates.
10. Mechanical equipment.
The mechanical equipment was exactly the same as that of the other mines.1
In workings where ore was not being mined, Soviet mining methods were used
to a greater extent.
11. Security measures.
These were the same as for the Eva mine.1
12. Management personnel*
a. Manager and Chief Engineers
Malinin (fnu)
b. Shift Organizer:
Jindra (fnu)
c. Overseer on the Second Level:
Lang (fnu)
d. Overseer on the Third Levels
Tuma (fnu)
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e. Overseer on the Fourth Levels
Zeman (fnu)
f. Overseer on the Sixth Levslt
Sterba (fnu)
SECRET
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7
N
Eduard Mine at Jachymov
Approximate Scale 1:5000
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Legend to Annex
Layout of the Mine
1. Gatekeeper's post., at the main entrance to the mine, both for, free employees
and prisoners* `Wooden, single-story, 5 x 3 m. There were always two members
of the StB at the post and one civilian checking passes.
2. Guard Room for the StB, wooden, single-story building, 15 x 10 in., sere
members-of o g duty on the towers and in the gatekeeper's post
were quartered.
3. Pass-Collecting Room. Single-story brick building, 3 x 3 in., where there
was one civilian female employee collecting passes. This was the main
entrance to the'central building, with which it was connected by a bridge
at a height of about six meters.
1. Central building, two-storied, brick building, 60 x 20 in., plastered and
covered w e emit. On the ground floor at the west corner, there was
the pit head with the cage and tower, rising above the building. An assembly
hall for the miners was in the eastern part and was connected with thb mine
by a corridor, on the north side of which was the lamp shop, with services
for maintaining and filling the lammps.. The hall hadtmodand ittings,fit as
lined with green tiles and equipped with central heating
miners. All meetings took place in this hall. On the north side of the
hall were the offices of the overseers and foremen for each level. On the
east side was the staircase to the second floor, and below this, stairs to
the basement. Beside the stairs was the entrance to the free employees'
cloakroom and bathrooms (showdrs only). The basement contained a boiler
for central heating, a store for coal, and safe cells where the Geiger
counters were kept. On the second floor were the mine management and
Soviet offices.
5. Pit winder, in a single-story brick building about 15 x 15 x 8 in. in size.
6. Compressor room, in a brick building about 30 x 15 x 6 m. in size.
7. Central Workshops, in a single-story brick building, 50 x 15 m. From east
to wee , the workshops were as follows: Electrical workshop with store,
repair shop for mine implements, with issuing and receiving room, mechanical
workshop, OTK (Expert Technical Control) (sorting shop), forge, receiving
and issuing of drill shafts.
8. Joiner's Workshop in a single-story, wooden building, about 25 x 10 in.
9. US; a group of about four wooden buildings, about 20 x 5 in. in size, single-
a,ory, containing the sorting shop, in which the last traces of radioactive
material, ore, and pitchblende were removed from dead material which in normal
circumstances would be thrown out onto the slag heap. About 50 kg. of pitch-
blende and ore were collected on an average daily in this sorting room.
10. Guard Towers, standing at the corners of the area and along the fence. These
were wooden, about six meters high, and on each was one member of the StB,
who was relieved every two hours. By day, they were armed with automatic
carbines and at night with light MGs.
U. Fence surrounding the whole area of the mine, double, 3 m. high; the space
under sand. Along the
enee the
marked.
fences was 3 m. sides there was ae3 mand sprined . wide zone with
fence o on both
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