Les Télots Mine
Les Télots Mine extracted oil shale dating from the Asselian era at Saint-Forgeot, on the outskirts of Autun in Saône-et-Loire town in central-eastern France. Shale mining in the area began in 1824 at Igornay. By 1837, shale oil was being produced for public lighting, and installations were constantly being improved to diversify production. Les Télots concession was granted in 1865. The refinery completed the oil distillation plant in 1936, employing several hundred workers who produced automotive fuel. During the Occupation, the site was of strategic importance to the German army, which kept a watchful eye on it, and minor acts of sabotage were carried out by the local resistance and the Allies (notably the Scullion raids). In retaliation, militiamen executed five workers. Following closure in 1957, the site was dismantled and partially demolished. Remains of the installations (ruins) and two large spoil tips still mark the landscape at the beginning of the 21st century, overgrown with particular vegetation studied for its biodiversity. Les Télots is recognized as a natural zone of ecological, faunistic, and floristic interest (ZNIEFF). The mine is located in a Morvan valley in the commune of Saint-Forgeot, on the outskirts of Autun in the north of the Saône-et-Loire département, in the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region of eastern France. The Autun oil shale deposit gives its name to the geological period in which it was formed: the Autunian, from 299 to 282 million years ago, with a thickness of 1.3 km. The oil shale layers are interspersed with fine detrital sediments, including limestone. The layers form lenses of widely varying thickness and quality. The deposit is underlain by the Stéphanien d'Épinac coal bedrock. The basin is divided into two strata, themselves subdivided into two beds. Les Télots Mine exploits a deposit belonging to the Upper Autunian and Millery strata, which are 250 meters thick of shale, crossed by clastic rock. It has ten bituminous layers, the top of which is composed of torbanite, a type of bituminous coal.
