In June 2025, Estelle Grelier, President of Saur France, and Catherine Lagneau, CEO of BRGM, signed a partnership agreement between the two organizations.
© BRGM
The six-year contract signed between Saur France and BRGM, worth €2.3m, is part of a public-interest mission for the monitoring, control and maintenance of technical systems ensuring the environmental and hydraulic safety of a region marked by its industrial mining history.
Ensuring the safety of post-mining regions
The management of former mining sites is a major public safety and environmental issue. In the Nord and Pas-de-Calais départements, the Hydraulic Safety Installations set up after the end of coal mining regulate the rainwater and run-off that can accumulate in subsidence basins caused by mining, and thus prevent flooding in urban and rural areas affected by mining activity.
Since BRGM is the French institution responsible for geoscience, its Mining Prevention and Safety Division has been entrusted by the Government to monitor and maintain them, to ensure that they are in good working order and will continue to be so in the future.
In their words
Proven expertise in the service of mining regions
For more than five years, Saur France has been working alongside BRGM in the coalfield, with in-depth knowledge of the terrain, the installations and the corresponding safety requirements. On the strength of this experience, Saur France was selected following a rigorous Call for Tender, thanks to its multidisciplinary technical expertise (in hydraulics, automation, energy and industrial maintenance), its local organisation and guaranteed continuity of service, as well as its diagnostic capabilities and overhauling plans, its data management via the VISEAU platform and its energy performance studies.
By relying on a rigorous management system, digital supervision tools and a demanding preventive maintenance policy, Saur France actively contributes to the long-term viability of hydraulic installations and the reduction of their environmental footprint.
A long-term scientific and industrial partnership
The contract won in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region is part of a wider national partnership between Saur France and BRGM, first established in 2021. The aim is to pool the scientific and operational expertise of the two organisations in the interests of sustainable management of water resources, risk prevention and environmental transition.
Structured to achieve three strategic goals – ensuring the optimum use of hydrogeological data, supporting local authorities with water management, and developing innovative tools incorporating artificial intelligence – this partnership is based on joint governance, bringing together scientific experts, technical departments and players in the field. It lays a strategic foundation for anticipating and meeting the safety challenges of post-mining regions.
