Slate mining in Altlay
Mining has a long tradition in Altlay. In addition to agriculture, it served as a second pillar for earning a living. In addition to the mining of ores such as lead, copper and zinc, mainly slate was mined mainly for the extraction of roofing slate. In most cases this was done in small working groups of two or three families who leased the mining rights for certain areas from the municipality. The work was very arduous because of the modern equipment; as they are used today, were not available. It was entirely manual work, from driving the tunnels into the mountain to mining the slate blocks. The slate blocks were transported out of the tunnels on a narrow rock railway track with carts to be processed into roofing slate in the Spalthütte. In addition to the family businesses, there was a large amount of slate quarrying in the Hahn community. This was operated by the Rathscheck company from Mayen. This mine was shut down around 1952. There is now slate quarrying again in Altlay. The Theis-Böger company from Bundenbach extracts roofing slate from underground mining in the Giaselrech district. Contrary to the manual work in previous years, almost everything is done with modern machines. Source: Text information board