European Minerals Day 2013 Events in France

Explore the World of Minerals!

Les Aucrais - On 25 May, Carmeuse France opened its doors to the public. After a welcome coffee, the visitors could witness a blasting in the limestone quar-ry of Les Aucrais. After lunch, a guided visit of the plant was on the programme. Those interested had the opportunity to take an adventurous ride through the quarry by jeep.

Axat - Imerys Minéraux France Axat invit-ed the local community (St Colombe and Axat Counsel) to its dolomite plant at Saint Martin Lys. The theme of the plant tour and presentation evolved around resource efficiency. The audience also learned about Imerys’ activities in Axat and the applications of dolomite. Bischwiller - Holcim organised an Open Day at its Bischwiller gravel pit. Focus was on sustainable activities and prod-ucts, including rehabilitation, environ-mental management and biodiversity.

Bonnevault - Sibelco France organised on 24 and 25 May an open day and a school guided visit on their Bonnevault site. The open day activities on 24 May consisted in a SIBELCO presentation (group, mar-kets, activities) and a SIBELCO FRANCE Bonnevault quarry presentation. The school guided visit of the quarry on 25 May with a geological teacher welcomed 30 children aged 17 and their 5 teachers.

Clérac - Organized around two days and in parallel with a festive event on May 31st (event managed exclusively by AGS)

and 1st of June, AGS organised a visit for 4 local schools in the morning of the first day, and to local politicians in the after-noon. On the Saturday, a joint event by the Municipality of Fouilloux and AGS was open to the public, with schools, colleges, elected officials and associations, consum-ers and retirees who were given educa-tional booklets and quizzes on quarries.

Herrlisheim - On 1 June, Holcim Granulats organised an Open Day at its gravel pit. The company participated in the national initiative by « Carrière & Matériaux à Cœur Ouvert » organised by UNICEM. Focus was again on sustainability and biodiversity.

Glomel - On 7 June, Damrec welcomed 3 groups of 20 students (3rd year) to par-ticipate in three workshops: a quarry visit where they were presented with geol-ogy, career management and rehabilita-tion of the site; a visit to the mechanical workshop of the quarry where they could get close to the machines (dumper, drill ...); and a process workshop in Damrec laboratory where they could operate and understand the ore manufacturing pro-cess (crushing, screening and magnetic separation) to get to the final product.

Luzenac - The Open Days involving a visit of the impressive Trimouns talc open pit mine located in the French Pyrenees unfortunately had to be cancelled due to the bad weather conditions. Imerys Talc Luzenac France has reported the events to September 2013. The Open Day can welcome up to 280 visitors.

See also www.mineralsday.eu/events/france

The European Minerals Day 2013welcomed more than 30.000 visitors to more than 170 events at 113 sites in 24 countries.

Overview of French eventsTotal visitors: 874Open door days: 10School projects: 7

Themes: biodiversity, quarrying, resource efficiency, sustainable development, dialogue with local communities, geology, quarry reha-bilitation and management

Number of articles: 4Web publications: 1

The European Minerals Day was initiated in 2007. This pan-European awareness raising and educational event takes place every two years. It aims to increase public understand-ing of the importance of minerals in daily life and promote biodiversity conservation and enhancement. Mineral raw materials produc-ers show how the sector contributes to a sustainable European economy by illustrating their role in resource efficiency, innovation and regional development.

Companies invite the local communities to take part in open days and school projects - while their European trade associations ensure the coordination, support and visibility at European level.

Lead: IMA-EuropePartners: CEMBUREAU, EUSalt, Eurometaux, Euromines, ETP SMR, EuroGeoSurveysWith the support of the European Commis-sion, IndustriAll (trade union), ELO, Association of Geologists, IUCN, UEPG, Cerame-Unie, and Members of European Parliament.

Mareuil - On May 31st, Charges Minérales du Périgord (CMP) wel-comed 15 local authorities and Social Associations in the morning and 14 neighbours from the local area in the afternoon to witnessed how CMP operates in an environmentally highly sensitive area. The CMP Environment Action Plan and Rehabilitation Pro-gram enhance Imerys’ commitment to preserve and promote biodiversity, engage all employees in sustainable development and enhance dialogue with the local communities. This was illustrated by waste collection and site renaturation, building of stone walls to provide a habitat for lizards, the creation of an experimental garden to explore and test alternative lawn preservation methodologies and the restoration and maintenance of typical zones of grass lawn.

Murat - On 25 May, World Minerals France welcomed the local communi-ties to their plant and processing facili-ties. The 23 visitors were introduced to Imerys’ activities. This open door served to allow the community to get to know the facility and processes.

Presles-et-Boves - On 31 May & 1 June, Holcim opened its gravel pit for two days to the public, where they could explore the extracting activity, pro-cessing plant and the specific uses for the materials. The main focus evolved around: How to rehabilitate and manage a site in accordance with the environment and biodiversity? How can extraction be sustainable?

Quartz de Dordogne - Imerys Ceram-ics France Quartz de Dordogne gave a presentation of the Electrometallurgi-cal Quartz stakes. A visit of both the plant and the quarry were organized, with a demonstration of the stand-ard level Saint Paul Roche, as well as a quarry visit about the remodeling of the Forest area and South zone Reforestation. These events were followed by a drink. On 27 May, fifty students from the engineering school of Limoges joined the activities. Dur-ing the day, 80 visitors were welcomed to the site.

Sainte Foy l’Argentière - Open house on May 24 on Imerys Terre Cuite France Sainte Foy l’Argentière site with the tourist municipalities and on May 27 with farmers Township, co-organ-ised by FDSEAs agricultural Federa-tion. During the day, 120 visitors were welcomed to the site.

Saint Germer - On 31 May and 1 June, Imerys Terre Cuite France in Saint Germer organised the following activi-ties: Welcome and presentation of the company, visit of the clays preparation workshop and of a tile production line. The theme evolved around quarries but it was impossible to visit them because of bad weather conditions all week long (snow). Overall, the site welcomed 105 visitors.

Sassenage - During the Mineral Days, the Carrières et Chaux Balthazard & Cotte which produce calcium carbon-ate, opened its door to a scientific

grade local school. Directly linked to their curriculum, students imple-mented, in a practical way, their notion of geology and life science. This visit aimed at drawing a parallel between the earth’s resources with business activities.

Thédirac, Peyrilles and Lavercantière - Nearly 150 people came on 25 May as part of the European Minerals Day for a quarry tour at Imerys Ceramics France, on the sites of Quartz and Sa-bles du Lot, based in Thédirac, Peyrilles and Lavercantière. For visitors, it was an opportunity to see “inside” the site with its 35 employees, understand the practical application of the raw materials and ask questions about the environmental efforts set up for sev-eral years by the lotoise business. For his part, Director Philippe Agier said he was “very pleased to see the interest of the general public for explanations delivered on both the geological setting of the deposit and quartz ag-gregates and in terms of progressive rehabilitation of the quarry with, as a goal, the remarkable biodiversity of the rehabilitated 14 hectares. Within two years, three additional hectares will be rehabilitated ... “.

Villers - At Imerys Minéraux France in Villers, contacts have been made with neighbouring schools from pre-school to engineering students. Target hit, with five classes of local secondary school which came on the 4th and 5th of April. With the theme of “Present and past biodiversity”, the aim of

these visits was to make children discover the life of (and in) a quarry, its inhabitants (with animal tracks such as badger or boar), the origins of chalk with fossils hunting... Returning to present times the speakers tried to make children understand our job, quite unknown from public, by making them explore how industrial miner-als are part of everyday life: from the paper to write on, through cosmetics, to the car their parents drive.Children were really interested, and Luc even had a message from a teach-er of a difficult class who reported one of his pupil’s conclusions: “if school was as interesting as this day, I would be head of my class”. The visit sched-uled on the 20th of June took place with the “Institute Lasalle Beauvais”, an engineering school with a geoscience area. During the day, 100 visitors were welcomed to the site.

European Minerals Day 2013 Events in France

See also www.mineralsday.eu/events/france