The Nord-Pas de Calais mining basin is the only fully underground large-scale coal deposit. Since the founding of the first mining company in 1757, coal mining has experienced several disasters at the beginning of the 20th century: two World wars and the Courrières accident in 1906. At its peak in the years 1930, its exploitation declined in the years 1960 to stop definitively in 1990.

The mining potential of the island is exploited from antiquity. It was at the end of the 19th century that a French company began to extract the iron ore, under the direction of the Gromman family of German origin. The working conditions were awful and lead to a strike in 1916 which ended with the death of several miners. Concessions were made by the company which continued its activity until 1963.