Notable case, Salsigne, Occitanie (Aude), France
Salsigne gold mine (Orbiel valley)
Mine d'or de Salsigne
A gold mine worked for 112 years. Since it closed in 2004 the residue stores have kept releasing arsenic into the Orbiel valley, north of Carcassonne.
At a glance
- Status
- Contained
- Activity
- 1892–2004
- Media
- soil, surface water, sediment, groundwater
- Kind of site
- mining, smelter
Contaminants
Status
Contained
Between 1999 and 2006 ADEME demolished the plant and confined the residues in two stores, keeping a water-treatment station. Arsenic still reaches the Orbiel (3 to 8 tonnes a year depending on the estimate); in July 2025 the administrative court ordered the state to bring the pollution under control within a year.
Story
The Salsigne mine, near Carcassonne, was worked from 1892 to 2004 and yielded 120 tonnes of gold. The arsenic in the deposit stayed behind in the processing residues.
After closure ADEME spent seven years making the site safe. In 2011 the prefecture banned the sale of vegetables grown in the valley. The floods of 2018 set sediments moving again: at a point less than 10 km upstream of Conques-sur-Orbiel up to 31,000 µg/g of arsenic was measured, more than 3%.
Timeline
- 1892Mining begins.
- 1999ADEME starts making the site safe (until 2006).
- 2004The mine closes.
- 2011Sale of vegetables from the valley is banned.
- 2018The floods remobilise arsenic-rich sediments.
- 2025The administrative court orders the state to control the pollution within a year.
Health
In summer 2019 tests by the regional health agency found dozens of children with arsenic above the reference threshold; in 2020 further tests also found mercury and lead in some residents (French Wikipedia).
Remediation
- 1999demolition and confinementDemolition of the plant and confinement of residues in two stores (1999–2006); water treatment.
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Pteris vittataChinese brake fernEvidence: field
- Agrostis capillarisCommon bentEvidence: field
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
- Eichhornia crassipesWater hyacinthEvidence: field
- Festuca rubraRed fescueEvidence: field
- Ricinus communisCastor beanEvidence: field
Fungi
- Funneliformis mosseaeEvidence: greenhouse
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
- Agaricus bisporusButton mushroomEvidence: laboratory
- Fomitopsis pinicolaRed-belted conkEvidence: laboratory
- Rhodotorula taiwanensisEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
Notable case, Aragón (Huesca), Spain
Sabiñánigo (Inquinosa lindane, Bailín and Sardas landfills)
239 km
- Hexachlorocyclohexane (lindane)
- Chlorobenzenes
- BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes)
- Phenols and chlorophenols
Notable case, Catalunya (Tarragona), Spain
Flix reservoir (Ebro river)
278 km
- Radionuclides (mixed)
- Mixed waste
Sources
- Mine d'or de Salsigne, Wikipedia (fr), 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.