Mining in the Limousin
The mining industry in the Limousin can be traced back to the 5th century BC, when Celtic Gauls in Limousin after gold mined - proven by numerous mining fronts, slag heaps and wooden support beams. In addition to gold, kaolin , hard coal and, in the 20th century, primarily uranium were mined for French nuclear power plants in the Limousin .
Like the rest of the Massif Central , the Limousin, which occupies its northwestern part, is quite rich in mineral raw materials. Industrial mining was concentrated in the 19th and 20th centuries and has now virtually come to a standstill. The very different mining activities contributed to permanently changing the former landscape character as well as the social, cultural and economic identity of this predominantly rural region.
Gold mining
Antiquity
Several sources report on the gold richness of Gaul , although the current Limousin is never explicitly mentioned. Its gold wealth can be reconstructed on the basis of numerous toponyms - examples are the river Aurence and the municipality of Auriat near Limoges , the villages of Laurière in the Haute-Vienne and Corrèze departments, or the Beaune-les-Mines district of Limoges. Preventive excavations, for example along the A 89 motorway in 1999, have also unearthed evidence of the former mining industry. Numerous Iron Age deposits such as B. the gold mine Lauriéras were then exploited again in modern times. Several studies allow the conclusion that the territory of the Gallic tribe of the Lemoviken was once covered by around 10 percent of gold mining - which corresponds to a good 250 mines and 1200 to 2000 individual mining. Béatrice Cauuet in particular ruled out two districts that were known to be extremely gold-mining: the district of Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche and the district of Monts d'Ambazac . The district of Saint-Yrieix includes deposits that range from Meilhards in the east to Saint-Priest-les-Fougères in the west.
The large number of outcrops allows a good picture of the mining methods of that time. The Gauls had obviously weakened the quartz vein by exposure to fire in order to facilitate its degradation. The mining proceeded from the surface in the open, but then passed into shafts, some of which were supported by wood, in deeper areas. The spoil was disposed of directly opposite the mining front. In the immediate vicinity there was also a place where the recovered ore was processed and crushed.
The Gauls were not only after gold, but also mined tin in the Monts de Blond , iron near Ussel and Bort-les-Orgues and silver as a by-product of gold mining.
This already very impressive mining production of the Gauls disappeared with the conquest of Gaul by the Romans in the first century BC. Chr. And fell into oblivion.
Modern times
The rediscovery of this rich mining past by the mining engineer François Ernest Mallard in the late 19th century led to a renewed interest in gold mining in the Limousin at the beginning of the 20th century. The first prospections were still very chaotic, but after the First World War they became much more accurate and more productive. Some mines, such as Lauriéras , were opened in the same place where the Celtic ancestors had already digged for gold. The mines of Cheni , Douillac and Nouzilleras , located just a few kilometers north of Saint-Yrieix, together with their workers' settlements, bear witness to lively mining activity after the First World War, which, however, already experienced its decline after the Second World War. In 1988, the Société des Mines du Bourneix - a subsidiary of Cogema - took over the management of the three remaining gold mines - Le Bourneix , Lauriéras and Les Renardières . The last gold mine to close was Le Bourneix, founded in 1982, in 2002.
Kaolin mining
The more or less accidental discovery in 1767 of a kaolin deposit near Marcognac near Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche by the doctor Jean-Baptiste Darnet was the starting point for the later famous Limoges porcelain factory , which started in the 19th century during the Industrial revolution took off immensely. The deposit was in 1769 by Louis XV. bought up. But it is not the only exploited kaolin deposit in the Limousin. There are also numerous others, of which only a few were also used permanently for the manufacture of porcelain. The main deposits are around Saint-Yrieix, in the Monts d'Ambazac (especially at La Jonchère-Saint-Maurice ), on the Bénévent-l'Abbaye plateau , near Allassac and in the Monédières in the Corrèze department.
The Marcognac open-air deposit was intensively mined from the 1780s. In 1786 it passed into the possession of François Alluaud , engineer and geographer of King Louis XVI. and director of the royal manufactory in Limoges and later mayor of Limoges. At the beginning of the industrial age at the beginning of the 19th century, kaolin was still extracted manually with a pick and pick, women disposed of the excavated material in baskets that they carried away on their heads. After the deposit was exhausted, the kaolin required for porcelain production was imported from other regions of France (such as Brittany ) or from abroad ( Portugal ). From 1825, other production centers such as Limoges developed. B. the porcelain factory of the Marquis de Bonneval in Coussac-Bonneval , which obtained the kaolin from nearby deposits ( Marsac and Marsaguet deposits ).
For the production of porcelain , feldspar from pegmatites is required in addition to kaolin . Both raw materials are linked to the occurrence of granites . Feldspar was mined in many places in the Limousin, mainly in the Monts d'Ambazac and in the Monts de Châlus .
Coal mining
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In the Limousin, coal mining began early on, and various sources have documented its use as early as the 17th century, possibly as early as the 15th century.
Several impressive seams had been discovered, at the beginning especially in the Corrèze department near Yssandon , Varetz , Saint-Pantaléon-de-Larche and Maussac . The coal from the Corrèze was in great demand, especially among the arms factories in Tulle , which used it for steel production. The first real mines opened in 1769 - first in Cublac and Le Lardin-Saint-Lazare , followed by Lapleau and Argentat . Coal mining stopped in Corrèze in 1921. Its annual production had reached up to 2000 tons.
From 1764 coal deposits were also found in the Creuse department, first in Bosmoreau-les-Mines , in Lavaveix-les-Mines and then in the entire remaining coal basin of Ahun-Lavaveix . The first concessions were granted to the Chantaud mine near Lavaveix in 1777 . From 1808 the entire coal basin was then systematically explored under the same concession. In the middle of the 19th century there were eight mines in operation at Fourneaux alone . The deepest shaft, Saint-Augustin , reached a depth of 117 meters.
From 1784 to 1958 coal was mined in Bosmoreau-les-Mines. Initially, the mining was carried out through several small shafts, but from the middle of the 19th century they were replaced by the large Marthe central shaft , which belonged to a family of porcelain manufacturers from Limoges. A steam engine operated the cage via a headframe and tracks and water pipes were laid in the corridors. The lobbying activities of MP Martin Nadaud and the connection to the railway network in 1883 (in the Ahun-Lavaveix coal basin as early as 1864) brought about a far more effective marketing of coal from the Creuse department. At the same time, washing systems were installed in all of the Creuse coal mines, which made it possible to further treat the extracted coal for raw gas and coke. The number of miners rose from 50 in 1855 to 195 in 1922. This was also reflected in the production figures, which increased fivefold between 1896 and 1922 and in 1922 reached 40,000 tons of annual output. In the entire Ahun-Lavaveix coal basin, the peak annual production in 1874 was 354,000 tons.
After the first interruption of coal production in 1922, due to the exhaustion of the Marthe shaft , three new deposits were discovered by chance in Bosmoreau-les-Mines, which, moreover, were only shallow. It was therefore switched to the opencast mine, which was mined intensively mechanized by the company Travaux du Sud-Est ( TSE ). The extraction rate was very high and in 1951 alone reached 264,000 tons of coal with the help of 359 miners.
Due to the emergence of new hydroelectric mining methods, the general triumph of crude oil and the growing interest in nuclear power - especially uranium mining in the Haute-Vienne - coal mining in Bosmoreau-les-Mines declined and finally ended in 1958. The factory site was sold in 1968 and then acquired by the municipality of Bosmoreau in 2003 to establish the mining museum Musée de la Mine de Bosmoreau-les-Mines . In 1960 the last production shaft ( Corbarioux 4 ) in the Ahun-Lavaveix coal basin was closed. In total, the brazier had delivered 12 million tons of coal. In contrast to other French coal basins, mainly local miners were employed in the Creuse.
uranium
discovery
Investigations carried out since the French Revolution have identified three principal uranium ores in France: the Autunit discovered in 1800 in the Saône-et-Loire department , the Torbernite (chalcolite) discovered in the Aveyron department in 1852 and the one near Saint-Rémy- Uraninite (pitchblende) found sur-Durolle in the Puy-de-Dôme department . The latter was meanwhile dismantled before the Second World War. The outcome of the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War induced the French state to elevate France to the rank of a nuclear power and at the same time use nuclear energy for peaceful electricity generation.
It is often assumed that Pierre and Marie Curie - known for their scientific work on radioactivity and co-discoverers of radium and polonium in 1898 - carried out investigations in the Limousin at the beginning of the 19th century. In reality, however, the first pitchblende was found in 1949 in the Monts d'Ambazac by prospectors from the newly established Commissariat à l'énergie atomique .
On February 21, 1949, a regional daily asked whether the Saint-Sylvestre uranium deposit was not the richest uranium deposit ever discovered in the world . The call by the Mayor of Saint-Sylvestre to workers in the road maintenance department to finally start dismantling caused an enormous echo in the press at the time.
Boom
During the entire period of production, the Limousin had around 40 uranium mines, the richest deposits being in the north of the Haute-Vienne and in the Monts d'Ambazac. It was headed by the minière de la Crouzille division . The enormous upswing in uranium ore mining in the Haute-Vienne prompted the CEA to set up a training center for prospectors in Razès north of Limoges in 1956 , which remained until 1987.
In 1982 the Mayor of Limoges and the President of the Conseil régional du Limousin Louis Longequeue asked the state to build an experimental reactor in the Limousin, in return, so to speak, for the Limousin's contribution to national nuclear power. The then President François Mitterrand was very positive about the request, but at the same time demanded that all MPs concerned endorse the project. The proposal remained without consequences, however, as there were no serious discussions between the local decision-makers and the representatives of nuclear energy.
At its peak of production, the Uranerz chemical concentration plant in Bessines-sur-Gartempe processed around 200,000 tons per year. In 1977 the Limousin alone accounted for 46 percent of French uranium production, equivalent to 1,000 tons of yellow cake a year. The number of employees amounted to 1600 employees.
Decline
On March 14, 1991, the director of the minière de la Crouzille division announced the end of uranium mining and processing in the Limousin for the end of 1996. The reasons for this decision were complex - primarily the new discovery of much more profitable uranium ore veins in Canada and Africa as well as signs of fatigue in the deposits in the Haute-Vienne were responsible. This directly affected 1,000 jobs and a secondary 2,000 more. The loss to the Haute-Vienne economy is estimated at 500 million francs. Jouac was the last uranium mine to close in May 2001.
Current status
Uranium mining left a lot of waste behind, which resulted in significant pollution. Cogema was prosecuted by the Sources et rivières du Limousin association ( springs and rivers in the Limousin ) for debris left behind and polluted waters, but was then acquitted due to an unclear legal situation.
Between 2006 and 2007 Areva turned to the slightly radioactive sludge in Lac de Saint-Pardoux . The lake is fed by several streams that, like the Ritord , flow through various uranium mines and thus radioactively pollute the lake. The sludge was finally stored in Bessines-sur-Gartempe. In 2016, weakly radioactive values could still be detected in samples taken. However, the situation has obviously improved since then.
In view of the risks of the decommissioned uranium mines - serious damage to the environment was to be assumed - and the lack of public discussion of the mining past, the government set up a non-partisan panel of experts ( Groupement d'Expertise Pluraliste - GEP ) in 2005 , the to 2007 Annie Sugier and then Robert Guillaumont chaired. In 2010, the panel presented its conclusions to the then Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development ( Développement durable ) Jean-Louis Borloo and the President of the Nuclear Safety Authority ( Autorité de sûreté nucléaire ) André-Claude Lacoste . In addition to fifteen recommendations, it worked out guidelines to be strictly observed when dealing with the former deposits, which were based on six different points of view.
The all too easy access to the closed mines regularly gives rise to polemics. A television report by France 3 in 2009 entitled `` Pièces à conviction '' ( evidence ) questions its management and also criticizes the lack of transparency about the drinking water in Limoges, especially that in the immediate vicinity of the former reservoirs Lake of La Crouzille, which is one of Limoges' drinking water reserves. In the same year residents and members of a civil rights movement went to the Hyverneresse deposit in the Creuse department and carried out radioactivity measurements there that exceeded the values in the area by a factor of fifteen. Areva is generally accused of failing to clearly disclose the contaminated sites of the former deposits. Clearly addressing the environmental problem with former miners, local residents or responsible politicians still seems to be taboo.
In 2012, two studies - one carried out by the Geography Department of the Université de Limoges , the other by the GEP expert committee mentioned above - showed an increased risk of cancer in the Gartempe valley , in whose catchment area most of the closed uranium mines are located. These results prompted the health authority Agence régionale de santé to launch an epidemiological investigation.
Other elements / metals
antimony
The element antimony was as stibnite in the construction of the railway tunnel of Montjovis discovered in the heart of Limoges for the first time. The actual deposits worth mentioning are Les Biards near Glandon in the Haute-Vienne, as well as two deposits near Mérinchal in the Creuse and the occurrence of Chanac-les-Mines in the Corrèze.
barium
The element barium is found quite frequently in the limestone basement in the form of barite (in barite ducts). Significant deposits are Mercœur and Les Farges near Ussel in the Corrèze and Rancon in the Haute-Vienne. In Les Farges , an impressive 110,000 tons of barite was mined between 1974 and 1980.
beryllium
Beryllium is of great importance in the aerospace industry and is also required for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. There is a beryl deposit near Lussac-les-Églises in Haute-Vienne, which was abandoned in the 1980s.
lead
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Lead occurs mainly as galena (lead luster), which usually also contains some silver. As for barite, Mercœur and Les Farges are found near Ussel and the area around Saint-Germain-les-Belles in Haute-Vienne. In Les Farges, 35,000 tons of lead concentrate and 100 tons of silver were extracted between 1974 and 1980. The lead from Saint-Germain-les-Belles was in great demand at the beginning of the 18th century, but later industrial mining failed. Lead / zinc was mined in the 19th and 20th centuries in Nontronnais (Dordogne department), which was still part of the Limousin region , for example in the Le Puy mine .
iron
As mentioned, iron was already mined by the Gauls near Ussel and Bort-les-Orgues. The iron mining of Perpezac-le-Blanc on the western edge of the Corrèze is more recent.
copper
Copper was mined at Ayen in the Corrèze.
mercury
Mercury comes from the area around Peyrat-le-Château in Haute-Vienne.
silver
As already mentioned, silver was a by-product of gold and lead mining.
tungsten
The Puy-les-Vignes tungsten deposit near Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat in Haute-Vienne had already been prospected in 1809, but was not mined until the beginning of the 20th century. Between 1920 and 1936 the work was stopped due to insufficient profitability and high wage costs. Between 1936 and 1955 it was dismantled again, especially because of the increased demand for explosives. In order to produce dynamite for acts of sabotage during the German occupation, resistance fighter Georges Guingouin had secretly stocked up in the attached powder factory. Tungsten mining represented a considerable source of income for the Haute-Vienne department, which was estimated at 2 billion francs at the time.
tin
Tin was already mined by the Gauls in the Monts de Blond, but was also present at Ségur-le-Château . Occasionally there are also smaller residual soaps with cassiterite on the basement, but all of them are below the degradation limit.
Other raw materials
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In Correze in the already since the 16th century Thiviers-Payzac Unit pending roofing slate mined, especially in the area of Allassac and Donzenac . After a production standstill, Travassac resumed dismantling at the craft level in 2010 .
Asbestos was once dug in the serpentine rocks of the Limousin ophiolite south of Limoges . B. in the Lande de Saint-Laurent . The impact breccias in the Rochechouart-Chassenon crater and the architecturally valuable red sandstone in the south of the Corrèze, which, for example, is characteristic of the townscape of Collonges-la-Rouge, were mined. However, all these mining activities have now been discontinued.
Natural stone extraction
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Granites, which occur very frequently, were primarily used as natural stones in the Limousin. The granites are three generations - granitoids of the Limousin Tonalitlinie , granitoids of Gueret-type and spätorogene Leukogranite . They were used in a variety of ways, including building blocks, lintels and lintels, as well as stairs in construction, as border and paving stones in road construction, and as slabs for graves and monuments. The Guéret granite may serve as an example , which was once quarried on a large scale at Maupuy , processed and then largely transported to Paris to supply the local building trade. The stonemasons from the Creuse ( Maçons de la Creuse ) were sought-after specialists at the time. The granite quarrying in the Limousin also attracted many Italian workers who were then fleeing from fascism in their homeland. The extraction of natural stone has meanwhile also decreased significantly.
Tourist upgrade
Two former mining regions have now been recognized as Monument Historique - since 2002 the kaolin mining around Marcognac and since 2006 the coal basin of Ahun-Lavaveix. Several museums were built in the old mines and nature trails were set up. A gold museum was opened in Le Chalard and Lauriéras is also earmarked for a tourist upgrade. Bessines-sur-Gartempe was in 2013 with Ureka a uranium Museum initiated. There are purely mineralogical museums in Ambazac and Eymouthiers . There are nature trails in Lavaveix-les-Mines, in Bosmoreau-les-Mines, in the iron mine of Perpezac-le-Blanc and in the kaolin deposit of La Jonchère-Saint-Maurice .
Attempts at resuscitation
Since 2013 there have been efforts to revive gold mining in the Limousin. In the Creuse, for example, the Villeranges deposit in the immediate vicinity of the Le Châtelet gold mine is due to go into operation from 2020. In the south of the Haute-Vienne around Coussac-Bonneval, an Australian consortium approved a research project over 261 square kilometers, limited to 5 years. However, these two projects met with strong resistance from the affected population, but were supported by the two economics ministers at the time, Arnaud Montebourg and Emmanuel Macron .
See also
literature
- Philippe Brunet: La nature dans tous ses états. Uranium, nucléaire et radioactivité en Limousin: une approche sociologique de la question environnementale de l'industrie de l'uranium . Presses universitaires de Limoges, Limoges 2004.
- Philippe Brunet: Les restes de l'industrie de l'uranium . In: Techniques & Culture . nos 65-66 (suppléments), 2017.
- Béatrice Cauuet: L'or des Celtes du Limousin . In: Limoges, Culture et Patrimoine en Limousin . 2004.
- Pierre-Christian Guiollard: Les mines d'or du district de Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche . Editions PC Guiollard, 1991.
- René Lacotte: Les industries extractives en Limousin, hors des minerais d'uranium . In: Norois . vol. 33, no 130, 1986, p. 257-284 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Béatrice Cauuet: L'or des Celtes du Limousin . Éditions Culture et Patrimoine en Limousin, 2004.
- ↑ Georges Landais: L'or et l'uranium . In: Le Limousin, terre sensible et rebelle . Autrement, Paris 1995.
- ^ André-Jean Laporte: L'archéologie et l'histoire au service de la recherche minière, un exemple d'application, les gisements aurifères du Limousin et de la Marche . In: Bulletins Recherches géologiques et minières . no 1 to no 4, 1965.
- ↑ Hélène Guiraud: Aristophane, traditions des Moralia, métallurgie . Presses universitaires du Mirail, 2005.
- ^ A. Brousse: Famous Mineral Localities. Les Farges mine. In: The Mineralogical Record . tape 13 (5) , 1982, pp. 261-268 .