MINERALS YEARBOOK, 1978-79406 
 
and its production personnel were combined with those of the Sigmundshall
Mine by Kali und Salz. The second largest West German potash company, Kali
Chemie AG, accounted for the remaining 9% of the country's potash production
at its Friederichshall Mine near Hannover. The Federal Republic of Germany's
potash mines were also located in the Hannover area except for Wintershall
and Hattorf, which were east of Kassel on the German Democratic Republic
border, and Neuhof-Ellers, which was near Fulda. 
 
MINERAL FUELS 
 
Domestic coal, lignite, natural gas, and crude oil supplied only about 36%
of the Federal Republic of Germany's energy. Roughly one-half of the country's
energy needs were met by oil imports in 1978. In 1979 the pattern was not
much changed. The principal objective of German energy policy is to reduce
dependence on imported oil; In 1979, energy consumption grew by 
5.9%. 
 Coal and Lignite.—In 1978, coal production continued to decrease
slightly,
while lignite production gained somewhat. The still abnormally large stock
of coal and coke decreased slightly to 24 million tons. In 1979, production
increased about 2.5%, but large deliveries caused stocks to decrease to 18
million tons. 
 On January 1, 1979, the Government raised coal subsidies paid by consumers
of electric power from an average of 4.5% to an average of 6.2% of the electric
bills, with actual increased rates varying in each State. 
 West German Government participations 
in fuels and power industry were: coal 50%, 
crude oil production 25%, natural gas 50%, 
and electric power 75%. 
 In October 1978, Rheinische Barunkohlenwerke AG (Rheinbraun) started operations
at its new Hambach opencast lignite mine in the vicinity of DUren in the
Cologne-Aachen Basin. Reserves of 2.4 billion tons are to last for 60 years.
In a first phase, to extend until 1983, 600 million cubic meters of overburden
are to be stripped, before the first lignite is produced from 20to 70-meter
-thick deposits lying at depths of 200 to 470 meters. At first three 240,000cubic-meter-per-day
excavators will be used, later to be increased to eight to produce 50 million
tons of lignite per year. 
 During 1978, Ruhrkohle AG constructed a 10-kilometer, 6,100-kilowatt underground
conveyor belt between the lignite mines of 
Pattberg and Rossenray on one hand and Rheinpreussen on the other hand. This
will enable the company to complement the producing and processing capacities
of the mines for the production of 15 million tons of raw lignite and 7.5
million tons of salable product per year. 
 The Federal Republic of Germany had 40 coal and 17 lignite mines, 21 coking
plants, five briquetting plants, and 29 mine mouth powerplants. The bituminous
coal industry was controlled mainly by seven companies: 
three in the Ruhr, two in the Aachen area, and one each in Saarland and Lower
Saxony. The largest industrial group was the Ruhrkohle AG, controlling about
threequarters of the country's bituminous coal output. 
 The lignite industry was dominated by the Rheinische Braunkohlenwerke AG,
which accounted for nearly four-fifths of total output; the remaining production
came from two medium-sized and four smaller companies. 
 The Federal Republic of Germany's bituminous coal reserves were estimated
in 1974 at 44 billion tons, of which 30 billion tons were recoverable. Total
resources were placed at 230.3 billion tons. the Federal Republic of Germany's
known lignite reserves were put at 55.5 billion tons, of which 9.5 billion
tons were recoverable reserves. Total resources were estimated at 55.9 billion
tons.4 
 Nuclear Power.—The Federal Republic of Germany's 15 operating
nuclear
powerplants generated about 36 million megawatt hours in 1978 and 42 million
megawatt hours in 1979. Two nuclear powerplants were inoperative during the
year, and two others were still in their commissioning phase, although one
of the two went critical during 1978. 
 The Government of the Federal Republic and Lower Saxony have signed an agreement
on financing the construction and operation of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing
and waste disposal center at Gorleben in Lower Saxony, near the border of
the German Democratic Republic. According to the present schedule, the center
will start full operation only in the late 1980s or early 1990s. At present,
the Federal Republic of Germany has only limited nuclear waste storage facilities.

 The members of URENCO, a uranium processing consortium composed of the Netherlands,
Great Britain, and the Federal Republic of Germany, have approved plans to
erect the Federal Republic of Germany's