#2026-537France Updates Rules on Quarries, Excavations, Mining Waste and Shallow Geothermal Systems
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This decree updates France’s classified-installation rules for activities that affect soil and subsoil, especially quarries, excavations, reuse of mining or quarry waste, and some small extraction sites. It clarifies which activities need authorization, declaration, or periodic control, with thresholds based on surface area, extracted volume, annual tonnage, and distance from other regulated quarries. The practical effect is mainly for quarry operators, construction and heritage-restoration projects, farmers, municipalities, and companies reusing mineral waste. They should check whether their activity now falls under authorization, declaration, or a lighter regime, and whether shallow open geothermal exchangers under 10 meters qualify for the added exemption described in the decree.
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Key Changes
- Updates the classified-installation entry for quarries and other material extraction activities.
- Sets or clarifies thresholds for excavation and extraction based on area, volume, tonnage and distance from other regulated quarries.
- Adds rules or exemptions for certain shallow open geothermal exchangers under 10 meters.
Obligations
What this law requires
Operators must obtain authorization for exploitation of quarries, except where the activity falls within the specific small-quarry regimes listed for marl/chalk/soil-marl materials or heritage-restoration stone, sand, and clay quarries.
Operators carrying out soil excavations must obtain authorization when extracted materials are used for purposes other than the work on the site where they were extracted and the excavation area exceeds 1,000 m² or the quantity to be extracted exceeds 2,000 tonnes.
Operators reusing or exploiting waste from mineral prospecting, extraction, treatment, or storage, including mine heaps, slag heaps, and quarry waste, must obtain authorization when the exploitation area exceeds 1,000 m² or the quantity of materials to be extracted exceeds 2,000 tonnes per year.
Operators of non-commercial open-air marl, chalk, soil-marl material, or granitic sand quarries may operate under the declaration regime only if the quarry is at least 500 metres from any quarry subject to authorization or declaration, the extraction area is under 500 m², annual extraction is under 250 tonnes, total extraction does not exceed 1,000 tonnes, and the quarry is operated by a farmer on their own fields or by a municipality or intermunicipal body in the public interest.
Operators of stone, sand, or clay quarries for restoration of listed or registered historic monuments, buildings in a remarkable heritage site, or other qualifying heritage buildings must comply with the declaration with periodic control regime when the quarry is more than 500 metres from a quarry subject to authorization or declaration, annual extraction is below 100 m³, and total extraction does not exceed 500 m³.