"The slag heaps bordering the Parc des Îles are part of a vast mining landscape located at the convergence of the Courrières, Bourges and Drocourt mining concessions.
This part of the Mining Basin, rich in fatty coal, hosted many pits including pit 1 of the Compagnie des Mines de Drocourt founded in 1878 and bought after the First World War by the Compagnie des Mines de Vicoigne — Noeux. The mining site of pit 1 (1880—1947), known as the Parisienne, was an industrial complex equipped with a coking plant, then a washhouse and a thermal power station.
All the installations have profoundly changed the landscape with the construction of mining towns such as the city of Darcy (Société des Mines de Bourges), the Cité Résidence de la Motte (Compagnie des Mines de Vicoigne-Noeux — Drocourt), the city of La Parisienne (Compagnie des Mines de Drocourt), the establishment of transport infrastructure for the shipment of coal and the construction of slag heaps to store the waste rock brought up with the coal.
The slag heap 205, like the slag heap 101 located on the other side of the road, come from the Drocourt washhouse attached to the La Parisienne pit. It sits on 22 hectares and overlooks the landscaped islands of the park while the slag 101 extends even more widely next to the slag 84. The latter was born from the activity of the pit 2 of Drocourt. It occupies 45 hectares and rises to 80 meters in height.
These slag heaps are excellent lookouts over the Mining Basin and are part of the 78 classified slag heaps forming the chain of slag heaps of the Northern France Mining Basin. However, access to them is prohibited to the public because of the remaining combustion zones.
The diversity of these environments constitutes an important reservoir of biodiversity. Heaps 84 and 205 constitute a Natural Zone of Ecological, Faunistic and Floristic Interest (ZNIEFF).
Shaped by man, the landscape formed by the slag heaps could still
will evolve in the future, because of possible subsidence linked to heating and management choices regarding the vegetation that develops there."