Museum areas 6-7-8 
Divining rods were used to detect the precious ore! The mines were divided in two categories:
The extraction
In the XIIIth century the only method that was used consisted in working in the shaft until a pocket of water was reached, then the shaft was abandonned.In the XVIth century the minors combined two methods and began either by the shaft or by the gallery, alternating both . The water was then evacuated up through the galleries with the help of winches and buckets or pumped by hand.
Ventilation inside the mine consisted in keeping air by mean of a ventilation shaft placed near the entry. A slight difference of level was enough to produce a draught (like in a fire place) and to canalize it into a sort of ventilation box.
The ore was evacuated through the galleries with small waggons on rails pushed by men called "dog runners". The ore was then gathered and lifted up on winches and then carried through various similar operations on "le carreau" (the square) to finish the extraction step.
Metallurgy
The minors who worked with stones to remove the ore used pickaxes or burins not without having first softened the rock with fire.
The silver ore was then folded with a crusher, washed and sorted out after being crushed finer with a hammer. The best parts were separated. The ore was first melted and then roasted in a reflection furance. The lead ore was also roasted, then both were mixed together and melted in a evaporation furnace for 3 to 4 days.Tools were provided by the forge. Waste weret hrown away at the entry of the mine, they were called "les haldes" and can still be seen today. One of them is represented on the TELLURE site…
