A drive and tensioning station (10) of a chain scraper conveyor for mining operations with a machine frame base (20) having side cheeks (21) and a conveyor base (22), connected to a line of pans of the chain scraper conveyor, with a tensioning frame head (50) which can be moved in the direction of the line of pans, in whose side cheek plates (51) can be mounted the chain drum (3) for the scraper chain, and with a tensioning drive having at least one tensioning cylinder (6) to move the tensioning frame head (50) relative to the machine frame base (20). The tensioning frame head (50) has a box-like drawer (60) extending out over the side cheek plates (51) toward the pan connecting side, which is guided in a type of drawer guide (26) on the machine frame base (20) and that on the tensioning frame head (50) a top run pan (70) forming a drag plate in the top run (4) and/or a bottom run box (40) forming a drag base in the bottom run are removably fastened.