Veteran Talc Sorter Retires After 42 Years at World’s Largest Quarry

"I’m happy, I’m going to be able to go back to Morocco even if I plan to come back to France on vacation, and travel to Spain. I’m taking with me a lot of memories," rejoices Mohamed Abouti to La Dépêche du Midi, who was doing his last week of work last October. The Moroccan seasonal worker has 42 years of experience in the world’s largest talc quarry located 15 km from Luzenac, where several communities of workers are gathered.

"There are several communities of talc workers, of course there are the Ariégeois, a lot of Portuguese, and there have historically been a lot of Moroccans," explains Jean-Pierre Papin, the site’s communication manager. "These are really people who constitute a family, people who are part of the history of talc, and as long as the team of Moroccans is not there, we have the impression that the team is not formed. Moreover, the start of the season is launched with the official arrival of the Moroccans, and it is very symbolic."

The site employs 300 workers, including about 120 employees (65/70 seasonal workers). As for the other 180 employees, they work in the factory for the processing of talc, its packaging, the preparation and shipment by train and by truck to customers. "For most workers, it’s six to eight months of work without returning home, they live here among themselves far from their families, for whom they sacrifice themselves in a way, to be able to bring them a better future, and they are all proud to be able to, with this sacrifice, allow their children to live better and to study," explains Maurice Jouve, director of the quarry.

Mohamed had good times with his colleagues in the Ariège factory where 400,000 tons of talc are extracted each year. "I arrived here in 1984, and it’s Mohamed who taught me to sort talc with the shovel, 4 years later, it’s me who was training him to sort with the shovel," recalls his colleague Antonio Goncalves. "A precision work, emphasizes Jean-Pierre Papin. The work of talc sorters is to extract the talc, but above all to sort it according to its quality [...] We have white, gray, others with greenish shades, and so the sorters must have this analytical capacity."