Cokerie-lavoir du Chanois

The cokerie-lavoir du Chanois is an industrial complex of the Ronchamp collieries that combines coal sorting-screening, washing, and preparation: facilities on a site adjacent to the Chanois pit, in Magny-Danigon, Haute-Saône, in the French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

The sorting-washing-screening workshops were built in 1898, replacing the small workshops at the Magny shaft. A coal preparation plant was constructed between 1900 and 1920 to replace the furnaces in the Saint-Joseph shaft. It closed in 1933, while the rest of the facilities remained in operation until the mines closed in 1958.

Remnants of these installations remain from the early 21st century, including a reinforced concrete hopper.

Location
The complex is located in Magny-Danigon, on the outskirts of Ronchamp, in the Haute-Saône department of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region of France. It lies on the Chanois plain, crossed by the Beuveroux and Rahin rivers. Its position forms a triangle with the Chanois well and the Ronchamp thermal power station, both 200 meters away. [[File:Plan Puits du Chanois - annexes - terrils - cités.svg|center|thumb|400x400px|The surroundings of the Chanois well and its ancillary installations in 1949. • {{legend|#BDFFB2|Forests}}

• {{legend|#000000|Land}}

• {{legend|#800000|Mine buildings}}

• {{legend|#004080|Mining town}}

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Sorting, screening and washing
In 1888, the Magny shaft was connected to the Chanois center by a railroad line extended in 1900 towards the Arthur-de-Buyer shaft, which was now in operation.

The central workshops were set up near the Chanois coal mine in 1898, enabling all the coal mined in Ronchamp to be processed via a rail network between the shafts. Wagons dump the coal into the upper part of the workshop. It is then sifted and separated into two categories: the smallest fragments are sent to the coal preparation by conveyor belts, while the largest pieces are sorted by hand by women for direct shipment to customers. On the other hand, if it is not sufficiently free of sterile material, it is crushed to form flakes measuring less than seven centimeters before being sent to the coal preparation.

The Coal preparation plant
A first series of furnaces were built before 1900.

Remains
In 2013, the Coal preparation plant and some small neighboring buildings are in ruins and overgrown. One of the two hoppers is still standing, while the second was dynamited by the army in the 1960s and left in place. The Coal preparation plant's ancillary buildings, notably the benzol vats, are in ruins, except for one part which had been converted into a dwelling and still has a roof in good condition. By contrast, the large wash-house and other buildings from the same period have been demolished without trace. The remains of the Coal preparation plant were cleared in early 2015.