Envers Mine
Puy-Saint-André
Faced with the challenges of rebuilding France, the Briançonnais basin had to produce large quantities of coal. To meet this high demand, the peasant miners organized themselves. Abandoning rudimentary techniques, they sought higher yields, taking advantage of outdated equipment or professional experience in nearby industrial mines.
The mine you are about to see combines these two worlds, which until now had remained impermeable. The pick-up, the farmer's all-purpose toboggan, is followed by a noria of trucks loading at a turnaround and then loading at the chute leading directly onto the road.
Underground, the old gallery was dug on a slope, following the layer, and the miners equipped themselves with a mechanical winch to compensate for the gradient. The human organization changed. The six miners from 1947 to 1953 introduced shift work, with three-person teams working 7 hours a day, morning and evening, with the other half day devoted to farm work. They even worked there in summer, a time of agricultural activity - an exception in the whole basin, given how productive the mine was.
The mine you are about to see combines these two worlds, which until now had remained impermeable. The pick-up, the farmer's all-purpose toboggan, is followed by a noria of trucks loading at a turnaround and then loading at the chute leading directly onto the road.
Underground, the old gallery was dug on a slope, following the layer, and the miners equipped themselves with a mechanical winch to compensate for the gradient. The human organization changed. The six miners from 1947 to 1953 introduced shift work, with three-person teams working 7 hours a day, morning and evening, with the other half day devoted to farm work. They even worked there in summer, a time of agricultural activity - an exception in the whole basin, given how productive the mine was.
