Mine La Motte is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Missouri, United States. It is located about six miles north of Fredericktown. Europeans discovered lead here and had also hoped to find silver. The French Governor of Louisiana Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac failed to find silver, but succeeded in recruiting investors in The Company of the West which was organized in 1717. Mine La Motte was eventually settled by about 200 French settlers along their slaves from Santo Domingo, under the leadership of Philip François Renault, to develop mines in 1717 making it one of the oldest settlements west of the Mississippi River.