Thread: Ardennes Coticule mine.

Originally Posted by Kees

Coticule is a by product of slate quarrying in the Ardennes.

It's true that Maurice Celis manages to keep his business profitable by selling almost everything else he quarries in order to get to the coticule. Slate is not among it. They produce natural building stones made from the blue schiste in which coticule layers are embedded. (It 's the same material as the Belgian Blue Whetstone) He also sells clay with very high mangane content to the brick baking industry for the production of black bricks. And he sells most of the other debris to a firm that produces "gres" drainage pipes. Even so, I feel it may sound a bit disrespectful to call coticule the side product. Historically there were many slate mines and quarries in that same region. But as far as I know, those and the coticule mines always were separate things. Putting all the other stuff to use, is an idea of Celis. It's a good thing he thought of that. Otherwise, the only coticule available would be what one can shovel up on the spot.

Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

It's true that Maurice Celis manages to keep his business profitable by selling almost everything else he quarries in order to get to the coticule.
Bart.

Proving once more the old adage that one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Originally Posted by Bart

It's true that Maurice Celis manages to keep his business profitable by selling almost everything else he quarries in order to get to the coticule. Slate is not among it. They produce natural building stones made from the blue schiste in which coticule layers are embedded. (It 's the same material as the Belgian Blue Whetstone) He also sells clay with bery high mangane content to the brick baking industry for the production of black bricks. And he sells most of the other debris to a firm that produces "gres" drainage pipes. Even so, I sounds disrespectful to call coticule the side product. Historically there were many slate mines and quarries in that same region. But as far as I know, those and the coticule mines always were separate things. Putting all the other stuff to use, is an idea of Celis. It's a good thing he thought of that. Otherwise, the only coticule available would be what one can shovel up on the spot.

Bart.

Hi Bart,

Thanks for your input. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. I always thought schist and slate are the same.

Schist and slate are closely related. They're both metamorphic rocks, only to a different degree. Schist often encompasses larger crystal structures, such as garnet. Slate does not.
For those interested, here's a website that offers a good basic explanation on rocks and minerals: Geology - rocks and minerals

Bart.

Well,slate and schist are similar only in that they are metamorphic rocks. Slate is derived from shale which is a sedimentary rock while schist comes from mica's which are igneous.Slate is from really fine particles mostly clay or silt like while mica though it weathers into a muddy mess is chemically different though not radically.

@Bart: any news about the translation of the work of Charles Gaspars work ? I know that we have a lot of people here coming from france...isnt there a chance that some of our members might be interested to do a translation to spread out the information for the interested ?

What about:
Thaeris, Gillaume, Antoine46, etc...is nobody of you guys interested to help a bit on this project ?
Would be great if it would be possible to completely translate the work of Charles Gaspar....

Originally Posted by doorsch

@Bart: any news about the translation of the work of Charles Gaspars work ? I know that we have a lot of people here coming from france...isnt there a chance that some of our members might be interested to do a translation to spread out the information for the interested ?

What about:
Thaeris, Gillaume, Antoine46, etc...is nobody of you guys interested to help a bit on this project ?
Would be great if it would be possible to completely translate the work of Charles Gaspar....

Thread is 6 years old, and the gentleman in question hasn't been active here in years.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Thread is 6 years old, and the gentleman in question hasn't been active here in years.

Yeah Jimmy i know, it was mentioned to re-activate the request..

I already gave Bart a Email shot to this issue....i would appreciate if there is a chance to gather a bunch of people to work on this translation...in a way of a community thought or availability....