Former bauxite mine site at Ollières in the Brignoles basin of the Var, with residual underground workings and surface remains from a sector that formed part of France's dominant bauxite production territory for a century.
The Mines de bauxite de Provence at Ollières, Var, represent part of the eastern sector of the Brignoles bauxite basin, which was for most of the twentieth century the principal bauxite-producing territory in France and at times the largest in the world. The first bauxite extractions in the Var took place at Cabasse in 1873 following the geological survey of Daubrée; exploitation rapidly spread westward across the Brignoles basin. The basin extends some forty kilometres, from the western basin at Mazaugues to the eastern basin between Le Val and Le Cannet-des-Maures.
Ollières lies within the western edge of the eastern basin. The l'Union des Bauxites, a subsidiary of the British Aluminium Company, installed itself in 1895 and held quasi-monopoly for a decade; it was subsequently challenged by Les Bauxites de France (a subsidiary of the Swiss-German group Aluminium Industriel A.G.), by Pechiney and Ugine for French production, and from 1922 by Les Bauxites du Midi (a subsidiary of the American Alcoa group). The basin's peak output reached 2.2 million tonnes in 1972.
From 1973, a progressive closure plan was put in place. The last underground mine in the basin, at Le Recoux, closed in March 1989; the last open-cast operation, at Doze near Cabasse, closed in 1990. The exxplore survey identified the surviving treuil from a Fournier et Mouillon extraction machine and described it as the last surviving chevalement in the Var region.
Subsurface remains at the site are accessible, including former galleries; the surface structures have been heavily vandalised.
The bauxite of the Brignoles basin in the Var was first identified at Cabasse in 1873 by the geologist Daubrée. Initial extractions were small open-cast operations by local entrepreneurs. The deposit occurs in two synclinal bands running roughly east-west, the western band around Mazaugues and the eastern band running from Le Val to Le Cannet-des-Maures, passing through Vins-sur-Caramy and Ollières.
The Var bassin dominates French and at times world production from the end of the nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth century. In 1895 the Union des Bauxites, a subsidiary of the British Aluminium Company, acquired the principal gisements including those of the Société Augé and established an effective monopoly for approximately ten years. It exported more than half of its production to England, Germany, Russia, and Austria via the port of Saint-Raphaël.
In 1905 the Société des Bauxites de France, a subsidiary of the Swiss-German group Aluminium Industriel A.G., arrived and seized the principal gisement of the Recoux, becoming the main competitor. Pechiney and Ugine represented French capital in the basin. In 1922 the Bauxites du Midi, a subsidiary of the American Alcoa group, also established operations.
The alumine content of the Var bauxite is 55 per cent on average, making it red bauxite of production quality. By 1914 Provence produced 300,000 tonnes and employed 750 workers, many recruited from the Piedmontese valleys of Italy. Output reached 545,000 tonnes in 1939 and exceeded 1 million tonnes in the early 1950s, reaching a record of 2.2 million tonnes in 1972 with a workforce of around 1,000.
Between 1948 and 1962 productivity quadrupled even as the workforce fell by half due to full mechanisation: scrappers and loaders replaced manual tools, jumbo perforators replaced hand-drilling, and mechanised bolting replaced timber props. In December 1972, Aluminium Pechiney announced that the basin's future was problematic by 1980 and that progressive closure was envisaged. A plan de 20 ans was adopted by Aluminium Pechiney to extend operations to around 1986-1990 through controlled reduction.
The workers, 75 per cent of them in the CGT, contested the closure and demanded exploitation to exhaustion — which they estimated at 2020, against the company's estimate of 28 million tonnes remaining. The western basin at Mazaugues was the first to close. Production fell from 2.2 million tonnes in 1972 to less than 1 million tonnes by 1985; the workforce contracted from 990 in 1975 to 225 in 1989.
The last underground mine in the eastern basin, at the Recoux in Le Cannet-des-Maures, closed in March 1989. The last open-cast operation, at Doze near Cabasse, closed in 1990. In December 1989 the last mine in the Brignoles basin closed definitively at Cabasse.
The exxplore survey of the Var bauxite sites documents the site at Ollières as retaining a treuil from the Société Fournier et Mouillon, identified as the last surviving chevalement in the broader Provence-Var region. The underground workings remain accessible, though the surface structures have been heavily vandalised. The musée des Gueules rouges at Tourves, established through an initiative launched in 1983 and opened in 2008 in the former cave coopérative of Tourves, commemorates the workers of the Brignoles bauxite basin, the so-called gueules rouges.
The museum contains a 900-square-metre reconstructed gallery built by former miners and opened in 2008.