Mines de Villeveyrac — Puits n° 2 Villeveyrac · Occitanie · France

Bauxite extraction at Villeveyrac traces its origins to 1873, making the commune one of the earliest sites of industrial bauxite production in the Languedoc and, by extension, among the first in France. Bauxite was identified in the region in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, and the geological character of the deposit — a karst-type red bauxite held in layers inclined from east to west with a dip of between fifteen and thirty degrees, reaching up to forty degrees in places, with average seam thickness of approximately four metres — was progressively described as exploitation deepened. The bauxite of Villeveyrac contains on average 55 per cent alumina and is of the red variety, distinct from the white bauxite found elsewhere in the Hérault which was used in ceramics and refractories.

The Villeveyrac red bauxite was originally extracted for the aluminium industry and later, following the industry's decline, redirected to the manufacture of special cements. The Villeveyrac territory was divided into multiple concessions operated by several companies: Pechiney, Alusuisse, Aluminium Alcan de France, the Union des Bauxites, and the SA des Bauxites et Alumines de Provence. Under a decree of 2 May 1963, the formal concession was instituted for the Compagnie de produits chimiques et électrométallurgiques Pechiney, with a total surface area of 37 square kilometres.

By a decree of 8 October 1971, the concession was transferred to Aluminium Pechiney. Principal underground mines operated across the concession included the Usclades, Cocaval, Regagnas, le Poussan, le Rec, Saint Farriol, Montpalisir, Rouquette, Comberouge, Cambellies, and Mas Rouch. Access to the underground bauxite was achieved by a combination of methods: vertical shafts sinking directly to individual ore pockets, and inclined access galleries (descenderies) following the seam gradient and traversing multiple ore lenses.

The Puits No.2 associated with this site forms part of this pattern of shaft access within the concession. By the early 1970s competition from cheaper imported bauxite and the structural decline of the aluminium industry in France triggered the progressive closure of the underground mines. The last underground mine in the Villeveyrac concession closed in 1991.

The former underground workings became flooded after closure; a pump is maintained for irrigation purposes. The shaft capstone of at least one numbered shaft survives in the vegetation, identified as the dalle du puits resting on a low muret, heavily encroached by brambles. The Usclades chantier was opened in the early 1950s.

A decree of 12 December 1996 authorised the partial mutation of the concession to the Société d'industrialisation et de commercialisation de l'association des parents d'enfants inadaptés de Frontignan La Peyrade (SODICAPEI), a social-economy enterprise. SODICAPEI recommenced open-cast extraction of bauxite in 1990 at the site and has since operated the Usclades and associated areas. The group cimentier Vicat took a minority shareholding in SODICAPEI from 2008, supplying technical and financial support in connection with the development of its low-carbon cement Alpenat, which uses bauxite as an additive.

By a decree of 23 December 2020, published on 26 December 2020, the concession was extended to 15 December 2046, reduced to a residual perimeter of 5 square kilometres covering parts of the communes of Villeveyrac and Saint-Pargoire. SODICAPEI currently employs approximately 23 people and produces on average 60,000 tonnes of bauxite per year. The undertaking also employs persons with disabilities in manual sorting and conditioning roles.

As of 2020 the company was studying the feasibility of a return to underground mining to a maximum depth of 230 metres, complementing the continuing open-cast operations.