Continuous Miner

One of the world's largest mining machines.

The Continuous Miners used in the Heilbronn Rock Salt Mine are among the world's largest mining machines with a length of 13.4 m, a width of 7.2 m, a height of 5.3 m and weighing 120 tons.

One of these impressive specimens has been on show in the Salt Mine Bad Friedrichshall since 1st May 2017.

The Continuous Miner on display was operational from May 2006 to March 2016. In just under ten years, the Continuous Miner mined approx. 8 million tons of rock salt and therefore excavated roughly 111,000 m of roadway in approx. 32,000 hours. The output of the Continuous Miner is 770 kW. The cutting drum is equipped with 94 hard metal teeth (cutting tools) that cut the salt rock directly out of the mountain.