Chanois Coal Mine

Before 1873, the Ronchamp coal mining company operated in the center of the Ronchamp and Champagney coalfields. But the shafts used for this task reached the end of their production life and had to be replaced. This was the role of the Magny and Chanois shafts.^[2]

Excavation of the latter began on 25 August 1873, with a useful diameter of 3.20 meters. The ventilation shaft was sunk 25 meters from the former, with a diameter of 2.20 meters. A 120-meter-high casing was added to mitigate the 300 hectoliters-per-hour inflow of water. In addition to the casing, Neut et Dumont pumps were installed.^[2]

On 16 February 1877 the shaft encountered coal at depths of 580 meters, but the layer was unusable. The drilling stopped at 588 meters in the transitional ground. Research was made impossible by heavy water inflows, and the shaft remained inactive until 1895.^[2]

• 
  Temporary installations for drilling the Chanois shaft.
• 
  Same view with the new permanent installations.

Mining began in the 20th century, with production rising steadily from 100 tonnes a day in 1895 to 250 tonnes a day in 1900,^[3] and finally reaching 12,587 tonnes in 1901. Following restoration, the 120 hp^[4] Sainte-Pauline^[2] shaft winding engine was installed on the site, using special aloe wire ropes. This type of cable was used until the end of operations.^[2] The recette jour building was installed more than six meters above ground level, as evidenced by old postcards, plans, and the wide stone wall visible until 2014.^[5]

• 
  Overview of the shaft at the start of its activity, with the emerging slag heap and Bourlémont hill in the background.
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  Close-up view of the extraction building, with the town of Ronchamp in the background.
• 
  Metal headframe located in the extraction building of the Chanois shaft.
• 
  Side view of the extraction building.

The compressed air used at the Magny and Chanois wells was generated by two Burckardt compressors and an older Sommeiller compressor. By 1897, these had to be replaced by new five-cubic-meter compressors powered by a 150-horsepower steam engine.^[6]

In 1902, a pump and electric lighting were installed at the bottom.^[7] Between 1904 and 1910, a fire raged at the bottom of the mine, causing no casualties.^[2]

In 1928, an assembly was dug to the Sainte Marie Coal Mine, and in 1929, the 1,500-meter-long "Cameroun" bowette (rock tunnel) linked it to the Notre-Dame shaft. These two shafts still had exploitable coal seams, but were not equipped for extraction.^[5] In 1933, the steam engine was replaced by an electric one.^[8]

• 
  The steam engine.
• 
  The electric machine.
• 
  The recette building
• 
  View of the minecarts coming out.

When the French coal industry was nationalized in 1946, under the impetus of the Provisional Government led initially by Charles de Gaulle, the Ronchamp coalfield was entrusted to Électricité de France (EDF), as it was too far from the other major coalfields and included a major thermal power station.^[9]

The Chanois shaft closed in 1951, before the Arthur de Buyer Coal Mine. In 1958, both shafts were backfilled with shale and covered with a concrete slabs.^[2][10]

After closure, the installations were dismantled, and the muffler and air compressor were reassembled on the Etançon shaft.^[11] The buildings were demolished between 1960 and 1963 to make way for the Germinal housing estate, comprising three blocks of flats.^[12] All that remains is the ruined extraction building and the lamp factory, which retains its roof. The extraction building was finally demolished in 1980.^[13]

In the 2000s, the ruins consisted of the dilapidated lamproom building, a remnant wall from the well building, and several blocks of masonry and concrete in a wasteland strewn with bricks and stones.^[5] From 2011 to 2013, a construction site for six pavilions required the destruction of several remnants.^[14] One of the three buildings of the Germinal housing estate was also demolished following authorization obtained on 15 November 2012.^[15]

• The worksite in February 2013.
• 
  The shaft wall.
• 
  View of the Germinal company town.
• 
  Location of a future home.
• 
  Brick from old buildings.
• 
  Remains of a building.
• 
  Location of a former compressor .

In 2013, only a section of the wall of the recette jour building and the lamppost building remained intact, next to the housing estate built on the site of several of the pit's buildings.

As of 2014, this wall no longer exists.

• 
  The Chanois shaft lamp factory (2015).
• 
• 
• 
  An allotment.

The sorting-washing-screening workshops were built in 1898, replacing the small workshops from the Magny shaft. A coking plant was built between 1900 and 1920 to replace the furnaces in the Saint-Joseph shaft. It closed in 1933, while the rest of the installations remained in operation until the mines closed in 1958. The power station was operated by the Ronchamp coal mines from its construction between 1906 and 1907 until its nationalization in 1946, when it became the property of Électricité de France until its closure in 1958. The plant was expanded twice between 1910 and 1924, to reach a capacity of 30 MW. Annual production varied between 5 and 37 GWh until 1950.^[16] A few ruins of these installations (including one hopper) remained at the beginning of the 21st century,^[17] whereas the second hopper was dynamited by the army in the 1960s and left in place.^[18]

• 
  The Chanois district c. 1910, with its foundries, shaft, power station, sandpit, railroad tracks, and slag heaps.
• 
  Overview of the coking plant and power station between the wars.

The mining company town was built, in 1919, after World War I, initially to accommodate troops, before being used between 1923 and 1925 to house Polish immigrants. It consisted of small, temporary barracks that were still inhabited after the mine closed.^[19][20] During the nationalization of the mine, the housing estate was the property of EDF, then taken over by the municipality, which rehoused the inhabitants elsewhere. It was demolished in early 1976 and replaced by a housing project in the northern part and a low-cost apartment (HLM) block in the southern part.^[21]