Anzin Mining Company

• Frence: Compagnie des mines d'Anzin

• French

The Compagnie des mines d'Anzin was a major French coal-mining enterprise officially established in 1757 in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais basin. Operating for over two centuries, the company pioneered deep-mine pumping technology and grew into one of France's largest industrial employers, with about 12,000 miners at its mid-nineteenth-century peak. Though the work was dangerous, the firm offered pensions, housing, welfare programs, and social amenities alongside its wages. The mines reached their height before World War I, suffered extensive wartime damage, and struggled in the interwar years. Nationalized in 1946, most pits closed during the 1970s and 1980s, with the last ending production in 1990. The landscape is partly restored, yet slag heaps, ponds, rail cuttings and several preserved heritage sites continue to mark the former coalfield. - AsNotedIn