Les Avinières

Saint-Laurent-le-Minier

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This ancient mine has been exploited for centuries before its complete stop in 1995. It has produced a lot of waste that contaminated rivers and soil with heavy metals, subsequently creating serious troubles for the ecosystem and the people living there.

Rising from its AshesRising from Its Ashes transforms plants able to absorb the heavy metal's pollution of the soil of an old mine into glazes that neutralize it. Linking the industrial past with a local pottery tradition to revitalise a region and its heritage.On the ancient mine site, only 2 species of plants survived, Anthyllis Vulneraria and Noccaea Caerulescens. They are called hyperaccumulators, as they draw important quantities of heavy metals.A phytoremediation program, based on those 2 plants, has been developed by scientists in order to rehabilitate the polluted soil.Though, without valorisation, the biomass created by the aerial parts of those plants are still considered as contaminated waste.By harvesting the plants and burning them at low temperature, the organic parts disappear, to release the heavy metals in the ashes. These heavy metals also called metalic oxydes in the ceramic field, are used to make glazes in addition to mineral elements. Fired at high temperature all these elements will melt to create a thin layer of glass, neutralising the heavy metals.The glazes have been developped from 3 different samples of Noccaea Caerulescens’s ashes.On the top, ashes from plants that have grown on the mine site.In the middle ashes from plants that have been cultivated in a laboratory before to be replanted on the site.And on the bottom, synthetic ashes.The abundant mineral resources of the Cevennes developed, amongst the intense mining, a pottery tradition. This tradition is symbolised by the vase of Anduze, made in the XVIIth century for the citrus trees of Versailles. Nowadays, it is a relic of a prosperous time for the region and the craftmen.The up-cycling of these plants into glazes is thus essential. It rehabilitates the region while creating new resources, linking the area’s industrial past with the local pottery tradition to revitalise the region and its heritage.The abundant mineral resources of the Cevennes developed, amongst the intense mining, a pottery tradition. This tradition is symbolised by the vase of Anduze, made in the XVIIth century for the citrus trees of Versailles. Nowadays, it is a relic of a prosperous time for the region and the craftmen.The up-cycling of these plants into glazes is thus essential. It rehabilitates the region while creating new resources, linking the area’s industrial past with the local pottery tradition to revitalise the region and its heritage.According to the scientists that work on this phytoremediation program, 50 years would be necessary to rehabilitate the soil of the mine, with an optimal development of Anthyllis Vulneraria and Noccaea Caerulescens.Thus it is important to develop an economic activity around the valorisation of these plants, in order to maintain their culture, to harvest them and transform them. But to achieve this rehabilitation an industrial future should be considered.According to the scientists that work on this phytoremediation program, 50 years would be necessary to rehabilitate the soil of the mine, with an optimal development of Anthyllis Vulneraria and Noccaea Caerulescens.Thus it is important to develop an economic activity around the valorisation of these plants, in order to maintain their culture, to harvest them and transform them. But to achieve this rehabilitation an industrial future should be considered.<>