Post-mine players
The heavy responsibilities that weigh on the State in the area of post-mining are integrated under a well-structured organization in the social, institutional, organizational and legal spheres. Regulatory functions are ensured by the competent central administration, i.e. the Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing (MEDDTL), and by the Regional Services for Industry, Research and the Environment (DRIRE) and the Regional Directorates for the Environment, Development and Housing (DREAL) at a decentralized level. Expertise duties and research are entrusted respectively to the public interest group GEODERIS and to the scientific interest group GISOS. Operational duties were delegated to BRGM, that set up a dedicated department, the Department for Mine Safety and Risk Prevention (DPSM).
DPSM was entrusted with the following main missions:
- safety enhancement work in the capacity of managing contractor,
- actions taken following an expropriation order,
- surveillance of mine site structures under the provisions of the Mining or the Environment Code,
- management of the post-mine information system, including that of intermediate technical mine-related archives and collaboration in mine notification.
Its main objectives are:
- guaranteeing the safety of persons and property in former mining zones,
- preserving technical know-how in the mining sphere
DPSM’s missions
Scheduled safety enhancement work or installation of controlled structures in the capacity of managing contractor:
- ensuring residential safety
- filling in or blocking off of galleries
- location and handling of mineshafts
- reinforcement of slag heaps
- levee repair
- installation of leveling or microseismic monitoring networks
Operations in case of accident (articles L.175-3 and L.175-4 of the Mining Code)
Operations following expropriation (articles L.174-6 to L.174-11 of the Mining Code):
- demolition and work to ensure safety
- property management
Surveillance of structures as per the Mining Code (articles L.163-11 et L.174-1 to L.174-4):
- hydraulic safety installations (article L.163-11):
- raceways
- levees
- mine discharge
- drawdown boreholes
- piezometres
- pumping stations
- pump lift stations
- water treatment stations
- overflow from mine lakes
- prevention of ground subsidence and the accumulation of toxic gases (articles L.174-1 to L.174-4)
- ore or tailings heaps
- buildings
- cavities
- equipment to hold oil runoff
- outlets for mine gas
- piezometres
- leveling networks
- capture and compression stations for mine gas
- marked pitheads
- unmarked pitheads or adit openings
- dumps
- zones affected by underground heat
- cracked or fissured zones
- zones with microseismic monitoring
- zones with seismic monitoring
Surveillance of mine site structures as per the Environment Code:
- heaps of processing tailings
- piezometres
- leveling networks
- capture and compression stations for mine gas
- contaminated soil zone
- decontamination boreholes
- Surface water sampling
- mine gas transport systems
- water treatment stations
Constitution of the equivalent of a cessation case for concessions abandoned and assimilated thereto or of technical files for construction work – examination of mining structures (articles L.163-1 to L.163-9 of the Mining Code)
Management and preservation of intermediate technical mine-related archives
Collaboration in mine notification
Technical assistance in managing damage due to mining