Environment and Biodiversity
Place
Teillay, France
Sponsor
Jacques Le Luherne
Grant(s)
14 000 € to the Selection Committee at 2008/05/27
Project leader
Les mines de la Brutz
« This integration project didn't pick the easiest task: the abandoned mines of Brutz, the iron, the rails. That's where the challenge lies: to breathe new life into this heritage, persist, never give up. The association also has other ambitions, because it plans to recondition other mechanical tools: crane, extractor, etc. The dynamism of the staff and the local officials will guarantee the success of this project. »
Jacques Le Luherne
The Brutz mines, an industrial heritage of the whole region, were restored some 15 years ago by the association of the same name with a precise objective: to convert this former industrial treasure into a cultural and tourist facility that retraces the entire history of the place, while creating integration jobs.
From year to year, the association has run various projects to refurbish the old surface buildings and the underground galleries. Assisted by former miners, retired mining engineers and mechanics, its work is recognised by the General Council, the Community of Communes, and backed by the University of Rennes and the Fer et Forge associative network of the Chateaubriand country.
A broad technological achievement
A new project has been prepared: the reconditioning of an old Badcock & Wilcox steam boiler dating from 1920 and the construction of the hanger that will house it with the machine shop and the rolling stock used to transport the ore in the various galleries.
The reconditioning of the boiler will require the action of several trades - masons, mechanics, hydraulics experts - and will exploit the skills of each, while helping the newly placed employees to acquire the knowhow that they hitherto lacked.
The Veolia foundation, concerned with this large-scale restoration and also with the cleanup and remediation of the site, which contains the drinking water source (supplying the pumping station run by Veolia Eau), has decided to aid the association. Fourteen integration jobs are now being created thanks to this project.