According to French regulations, the main objectives for the treatment of old abandoned mines consist of : preventing collapses and dangerous subsidence, controlling mine gas emissions and closing old abandoned mine openings. In the Herault coal basin, underground exploitation started very early, in particular by the way of shallow adits dug in hillsides. Today more than 600 adits have been listed on old maps but a lot of them have not yet been precisely located. Charbonnages de France and INERIS have analyzed all risks generated by these old openings and have established a methodology able to determine the closure procedure which can guarantee the safety of the opening. This methodology can be adapted to an adit (size, state of...) and to the physical characteristics of the site (gas, water, location...). In order to limit the number of configurations, two of the above factors have been retained : the state and the location of the gallery. After analyzing all the possible configurations, closure principles have been determined for each of them. The paper : discusses geographical and historical background of the Herault basin exploitation, list the specific parameters which influence the choice of process able to secure the adits, present the general methodology used. Finally, the treatment of an adit located under inhabited areas is presented.