THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 379 
 
GDR's ore mining, metallurgical, and potash industries, 130,000 are employed
by the ferrous metallurgical industry (iron foundries and steelworks). 
Over 75% of the GDR's steel production is from scrap. Starved of indigenous
raw materials and faced by spiraling costs on the world market, the GDR has
launched a massive press and radio campaign to explain the value of scrap
metal, glass, etc., as secondary raw materials. Illustrative of the GDR's
campaign to save valuable raw materials was a ruling by the East Berlin Ministry
of Construction that forbids, in principle, the use of rolled steel products
in aboveground construction, effective January 1, 1978. Exceptions to this
ruling can be approved only by the Ministry. According to this rulmg concrete
is to be used to a greater extent in structures instead of rolled steel.'~

In 1978, an order was placed for a new heavy plate steel mill, VEB Stahl-
und Walzwerk at Brandenburg, with the Austrian company Vöest-Alpine
AG atid the FRG firm Schloemann-Siemag. When completed, the mill is expected
to produce 500,000 tons of steel plates annually. The order also includes
a hot and cold-dividing shear line. The total mill order is valued at the
equivalent of US$267.7 million, and commissioning of the mill is scheduled
for 1981 or 1982. The FRG's share of investment in this order is 25%. In
return for this order, Austria plans to buy smelting technology from the
GDR. The Brandenburg steelmaking plant is presently equipped with open hearths,
and the rolling mills include a blooming mill, tube mill, wire rod mill,
and 6,500-millimeter slab mill (annual capacity of the slab mill is 3 million
tons). Future expansion plans include construction of an electric steelmaking
shop with two Asea arc furnaces and two eight-strand Danieli continuous billet
casters. The expansion may have been commissioned in 1979, and the shop is
slated to have a capacity of 550,000 tons annually.16 
Reportedly, the GDR's high-grade steel manufacturer VEB Edelstahlwerk (Freital)
and the Soviet Institute of Electrothermal Plants jointly developed a 40-ton
plasma furnace in 1978 that is especially designed for alloyed and high-alloy
steels. 
In 1978, the FRG firm Friedrich Krupp GmbH at Rheinhausen handed over for
operation the new equipment it installed at the GDR's Wilhelm Florin steelworks
and the rolling mill at Hennigsdorf. The new 
equipment is capable of producing 175,000 tons of electrosteel annually and
reportedly cost the GDR DM120 million. The order was filled under a long-term
agreement on economic and technical cooperation between Krupp and the GDR.
The capacity of the Hennigsdorf steelworks rose to 1.2 million tons. 
In 1978, the FRG firm Krupp Industrieund Stahlbau AG, a subsidiary of Friedrich
Krupp, handed over a complete foundry to the GDR firm Industrie Anlagenimport
of East Berlin. The foundry, the result of 2 1/2 years of planning and construction,
is located near Uckermünde on the Oder estuary. It is designed to
produce
16,000 tons of pipe fittings annually and was built at a cost of DM120 million.

Negotiations were underway in 1978 between the GDR and a European consortium
led by the Belgian steel firm Cockerill for construction of a completely
new 850,000ton-per-year medium-section roIling mill. It is reported that
the GDR is giving priority to expansion of rolling mill capacities in its
current 1976-80 5-year plan.1~ 
Lead and Zinc.—The GDR's lead and zinc mines are old, and mining
has
almost ceased owing to ore depletion. The GDR's mine output data for lead
and zinc have not been reported for a number of years. The VEB Buntmetall
lead-zinc-silver complex at Freiberg, about 25 kilometers northeast of Karl-Marx-Stadt
(formerly Chemnitz), is the largest in the GDR and uses imported concentrates
in its production. The refmed lead capacity is about 20,000 to 25,000 tons
annually, of the Saxonia brand. About 15,000 to 22,000 tons of electrolytic
slab zinc is produced annually at the same plant. 
Most of the GDR's lead and zinc requirements are met through imports from
the U.SS.R. The U.S.S.R. ceased reporting its exports in 1975, in which year
the GDR imported 47,000 tons of lead and 40,553 tons of zinc from the U.S.S.R.
The estimated consumption of lead in 1978 was 95,000 tons, In addition to
imports from the U.S.S.R., the GDR imported in 1978 about 3,400 tons of refmed
lead from Western countries and reexported 800 tons to these countries. 
The GDR's estimated consumption of zinc increased in 1978 to 70,000 tons,
a rising trend that has continued for at least the last 5 years. Imports
of slab zinc from Western countries in 1978 decreased 86% from the record
high of 15,700 tons in 1976, the first year of the current 5-year plan. 
NickeL—The GDR is a significant produc