 |
| Bitterfeld was still mostly working on a magnesite basis, Aken
produced magnesium on a basis of dolomite/final liquor [Endlauge]. To this end,
a magnesia factory, utilizing Kruegershall final liquor and Rhenish dolomite,
with production facilities for 24,000 tons per year was built, simultaneously
with Aken, in the idle Teutschenthal plant of I.G. Bitterfeld. Following upon
Aken, at the request of the Ministry of Aviation, the Stassfurt plant, with
facilities to produce 4,200 tons per year, including 12,000 tons magnesia per
year on a final liquor basis, was built by I.G. Bitterfeld for Preussag* This
factory served as a standby plant and was not operated until some time after
its completion. |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
5. The growth of the Magnesium Industry under the Four Year Plan
1936-1939
When the Four Year Plan was announced its object was to
utilize fully all German raw materials. One of the raw materials, particularly
in the very difficult field of non-ferrous metals, was magnesium; production
facilities available for magnesium were not being used. The aim, therefore, was
to use these facilities as soon as possible, that is, to create new fields of
application for the production. The problem was rendered more difficult by the
fact that after certain stocks of the special product for incendiary bombs had
been built up, even existing and operating plants would be heading for a sales
crisis, if magnesium metal could not be used on the broadest possible
basis. |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
| The many efforts which have been described proved successful. By
1938, in spite of the fact that the many large Wehrmacht orders were nearing
completion, particularly for the incendiary bomb, production was not only kept
up but, over and above that, the Stassfurt plant, until now idle, with
production facilities for 4,200 tons per year, was put into operation at the
end of 1938. Included in the development of magnesium production for 1933 to
1935 was the planning of the expansion in case of mobilization. The plants
built in Aken, Stassfurt, and Heringen were therefore planned in such a way
that they could be expanded at any time. |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
| The investigation in regard to the mobilization requirements, which
was conducted at the beginning of 1938 simultaneously with that of the
mobilization requirement for the raw material aluminum, at first showed a
mobilization requirement of 26,000 tons per year. This requirement was in
strict conformity with |
__________
* Preussische Bergwerks-und
Huetten AG.
980 |
. 
