The ocher industry was born at the end of the 18th century when Jean-Étienne Astier, the first ocher manufacturer, developed an industrial process of separation of ocher and sand in 1780. It then reached its peak in the mid-19th century when ocher was exported all over the world before its operating costs increased from 1875 onwards following the implementation of underground extraction by wells and galleries. Its irreparable decline is linked to the arrival on the market, from 1940, of synthetic pigments and new petroleum-derived products to replace ocher in the manufacture of rubber.