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A municipal area in the Tarn and Midi-Pyrénées region, Blaye-Les-Mines belongs to the canton of Carmaux-Sud in the district of Albi. The inhabitants of Blaye-Les-Mines are called "Blayais" and the population was 2,944 at the last census in 1999. Occupying a surface area of 9 km2, Blaye-Les-Mines is located at an altitude of about 325 metres above sea level.

The origins of Blaye hark back to a royal mansion that was built there in 1302 in order to revitalise the Albi area that was becoming depopulated and abandoned.

In the 19th century, Blaye en Albigeois as it used to be called found itself in the thick of the industrial revolution when the Grillatié mines were opened in 1837 followed by the Tronquié and Sainte-Maire pits a little later.

Almost all of the "Carmaux coal" was produced in Blaye for two centuries. In 1934, Blaye en Albigeois was officially renamed Blaye-les-Mines.

The adventure drew to a close in 1987 with the closing of the last pit. One last coal-mining enterprise between 1985 and 1997 with the digging of the open-air mine of Blaye-les-Mines, called the Great Discovery mine, failed to change the course of history.

Blaye-les-Mines has preserved as a memento of its mining past a splendid steel pit-head frame, 28 metres high, that used to convey men and material down the old Sainte-Marie coal mine.

To the site of Blayes-les-Mines

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