FRANCE, A MINING PHOENIX IN THE 1950S AND 1960S

Abstract

In 1937, as he sought to develop a national policy for the extractive industries, the engineer Fernand Blondel was concerned about the mediocre nation of the activity in France. Although his proposals were not initially met with an enthusiastic response, the Second World War created the conditions for a breakthrough. Despite the fact that France had a history of mining, principally based on iron and coal mines, the situation was not favourable as policy makers shaped new policies from the 1950s in order to recon-struct the country. Gaining or regaining independence for certain strategic mineral substances was essential. Major changes were made within training organisations, including the École des Mines in Paris and at the École des Mines in Nancy. The École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie in Nancy imposed its model of geological engineering, while major exploration institutions were reorganised (BRGG, then BRGGM, and finally BRGM) or set up (DREM for the search for radioactive materials). Paradoxically, at the beginning of the 1950s, France’s subsoil was still much less well known than that of other developed countries. Long neglected, metal ores became a national priority as their potential in industrial processes became clearer. As a result, legislative and administrative frameworks were redesigned to accelerate the revival of the mining sector. This led to the most significant overhaul of the conditions for developing French subsoil since the enactment of the law of 1810 when a Mining Code was adopted in 1956, in parallel with efforts to explore and develop the subsoil. In the years that followed, new mineral substances became available and, as a result, France was able to meet some of its needs in this area. Thanks to these legal and administrative changes introduced in 1956, France became a significant player in the mining world. It was often referred to as exemplary in the development of such an industry until the early 1980s, when mines in France began to close down. Today’s geopolitical environment is increasingly complex and threatening, however. There is also a need to transition to renewable energy resources and to decarbonise society. As a result, a number of mining projects have been launched recently that are based on resources discovered after 1950 such as scheelite, fluorite and gold. The article concludes with a comparison of today’s legal and administrative context with that of the 1950s. The objective is to compare the difficulties in relaunching an ambitious extractive industry and to identify how policy makers might support France’s development as an essential and strategic player in the preservation or creation of critical industrial activities on a European scale.