The Béarn gendarmes specializing in speleology requisitioned at the beginning of the week in the Tarn, as part of the Jubillar affair, went to the site of a former wasteland emblematic of the Carmausin mining basin: the former coal wash house of Blaye-les-Mines. Reporting
This is information that La Dépêche du Midi revealed to you yesterday: the investigators called in gendarmes specializing in speleology in connection with the disappearance of Delphine Jubillar. A unit based in Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was present at the beginning of the week in Cagnac-les-Mines.
These soldiers from the caving group of the national gendarmerie (GSGN), also called the underground investigation group (GEMS), which depends on the high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) based in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, were called upon to expand searches beyond the simple perimeter located near the home of the Jubillar couple.
The track of the old coal wash house
A gigantic abandoned concrete structure
The explorations carried out on Cagnac-les-Mines having proved unsuccessful, the investigators wished to open up new avenues concerning places, a little more out of the way but still in a sector allowing to project quickly in the middle of the night and to conceal a body. or clues. One of these tracks leads to an area located about 7 km from the Jubillar’s home, which had not yet been explored: the old coal wash house of Blaye-les-Mines, on the site of “La Tronquié” .
It is an emblematic site of the mining basin. It is an industrial wasteland abandoned since its closure in the 1990s. A gigantic 7-storey building, made up of a concrete framework with metal beams that emerges from a forest between cavities, gaping holes, piles stones and rubbish. A difficult place to access – entry is obviously prohibited – dangerous, popular with Urbex fans and “chirps”. The coal wash house is located near the former mining operation of Sainte-Marie, one of the largest open-cast mines in Europe.

The water stagnates below
The day after the research carried out by the speleologists, we went there. It is by a small path, only known to the inhabitants of the sector, that one reaches this area. Broken windows, this fallen industrial flagship is open to the four winds, causing metallic squeaks that resonate in the blackened and ghostly structure.
Difficulty exploring these dismal places

The cavities are numerous
The site still bears the scars of several fires. Holes dot the floor made up of thin concrete slabs and rusty, unsoldered, deformed iron slabs. Many pieces of metal loom out in the innumerable cavities of the building. Railings that do not hold, stairs without steps … Time has done its work. But wells are still visible. Below, at more than 30 meters, water stagnates which escapes from the retention basins.
One can easily imagine the difficulty investigators have in exploring these dismal places. Many places are difficult to reach without the equipment of climbers and speleologists. The cavities that dot the site are formidable. Hence the appeal to these specialists of the gendarmerie who will surely have other investigations to carry out in this sector.
The Blaye-les-Mines coal wash house, an emblematic site now targeted
The Carmaux / Blaye-les-Mines coal washhouse was founded in 1928. A coal washhouse is generally located near the extraction well, sometimes even it is incorporated directly into the washhouse. When the bottom is raised, the wagons are full, either with coal or with sterile stones: the whole is treated in sorting, the ore is redirected to the wash house and the waste rock to a slag heap. The coal washers were used to separate the stones from the coal. The principle was simple, the coal not having the same density as the rock, we immersed the two in a liquid of an average density (often very polluting), the coal floated and the stones sank.
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