The place gives its name to Randanite, a soluble silica that occurs as fine earth near Randan and near Algiers.[3]
In the late 19th century the official composition of the dynamite at the Poudrerie nationale de Vonges and other French powder works was 75% nitroglycerin, 20.8% randanite, 3.8% Vierzon silica and 0.4% magnesium carbonate.[4]
Randan was a holiday destination of the royal family of the House of Orléans in the early nineteenth century, thanks to the Château in Randan.