Photo de stock - FILED - 01 January 1990, Berlin, Ronneburg: Thuringia / GDR / Mining / 3 / 1990 Uranium mining shaft Drosen near Ronneburg. The company belonged to VEB Wismut and was still in full operation at that time. The picture shows an excavator in a working shaft at a depth of 600 metres. He pushes blasted rock into a vertical shaft. It then falls into a mine railway / Environment / Mining / Radiation / Economy / Workers / Energy / Atom The German-Soviet joint-stock company was founded after the emergence of the GDR to enable the Soviet Union to continue to have access to uranium in the Ore Mountains. Between 1946 and 1990, more than 200,000 tons of uranium ore were mined. When uranium mining was discontinued in 1990, huge areas of overburden rubble and sludge had to be remediated at a cost of around 8 billion euros. Old shafts had to be filled, dumps were secured and planted, radioactive equipment had to be brought underground. The area around Aue in Saxony and eastern Thuringia around Ronneburg is affected / Uranium mining Photo: Paul Glaser/dpa-Zentralbild/ZB. - Ronneburg/Berlin/Germany