F60

The F60 is the mechanical behemoth which functions as the focal landmark of the Welzow- Süd open-pit lignite mine. This long metal apparatus stretches across the center of the mining area and forms the centripetal axis of the mine’s activities. The F60’s weighty presence makes the work of mining and its spatialized temporalities visible. Our tour of the lignite mine seemed to literally revolve around the F60. As the visitor truck drove around the operative mining area perimeter, the F60 was conspicuously featured as its central radius. We came out of the truck to appraise the full length of the F60 from a distance; we stood next to it on another stop. Our tour guide emphasized the F60 repeatedly, expecting us to be impressed by its length and size.

The F60 is an extended conveyor bridge which channels away the overburden produced by high-cut and low-cut excavators. These excavators cut into the walls of the mine in three precut phases totaling about 148 meters before extracting coal. It moves the meters of overburden to the other end of the pit where a massive pile of glacier sand steadily grows into a small continent. Measuring 502 meters long and 204 m wide, the F60 is the largest of three successively developed conveyor bridge models manufactured by VEB TAKRAF Lauchhammer; the previous model F45 had a span of 225 m and boom of 125m. The gargantuan size of this machine is reflected in the three years taken to transport its individual parts and assemble them together in the Welzow-Süd mine from1969 to 1972. It continues to hold the world record as the largest conveyor bridge and it is purportedly the “longest vehicle ever made… (and) the largest vehicle by physical dimensions ever made by mankind”. The F60 in Welzow-Süd is one out of 5 machines of its kind only located in Lusatia and is expected to be operational until 2028.

The two ends of the F60 conveyor bridge are suspended by rails along the mine’s benches created from the pre-cut phases of the mining process. The F60 moves along with the excavators attached to it that cut into the mine walls, together with the entire conveyor belt system which is repositioned inwards once a week. The 11000-tonne F60 moves 6 to 8 meters per minute on the rails. These rails are in turn shifted by rail-moving engines in snaking arrangements once or twice a week. In 2023, the F60 makes a turning point, physically marking the progress of the excavation – and exhaustion – of the mine.

The eventual destiny of the Welzow-Süd F60 after 2028 is unclear. But the status of other F60s in Lusatia, such as the one in Lichterfeld, point to its possible futures as a tourist attraction and abseiling platform which exploit the sheer scale of the machine and the landscape it has helped to carve out and dominate.