Again
Today Montbelleux stands out as an unusual industrial site in an agricultural area.
Many hundreds of families lived thanks to the mine.
The mine was regarded as a source of wealth but also produced its own culture: these men knew what hard work means, they knew about sweat and filth and danger but also about fellowship and dignity.
The mine had painful moments, when men were killed or injured in accidents and also when men where laid off because of the decline in the price of raw materials.
The gantry, visible from miles around, marks the landscape, and is the last relic of mining activity in Brittany although the region had always had numerous mines.
Only tungsten, and to a lesser degree tin, were extracted in Montbelleux, but many other minerals are present in the ground fluorite, topaz, etc.
