Impressions of Spain

by Albert Frederick Calvert

The Huercal Copper Cobalt Mines.

A railway journey of 20 hours’ duration, over three railroad systems, transports the visitor from Madrid to the little mining town of Huercal (pronounced Whercal) Overa. We leave the capital by the express train for Alicante, and travel via Alcázar and Albacete to Chinchilla, which is reached at some unearthly hour in the middle of the night. From Chinchilla the line runs through the beautiful province of Murcia to Lorca, where we change onto a small English railroad which takes us to Huercal. We had left Madrid in our winter overcoats and rugs; when we stepped out into the soft sunshine of Almeria we could have dispensed with our under coats and waistcoats. We are in the land of the spring roses and early oranges, and the nipping and eager air of the capital is forgotten. Our visit is regarded by the community with general interest, for the townsfolk look to El Monte Minado, as the copper mines are known locally, to make the fortunes of Huercal-Overa. Many of the leading people here are shareholders in the mines, and all the labour employed on the property is drawn from the town. There is not a child in the neighbourhood who is unacquainted with the personality of the Spanish representative of the English proprietors, who acts as our cicerone, and the word goes round that he is come to town. The mine captain, and several prominent people of the district, are at the station to meet us; and in the sitting-room that has been reserved for our use in the comfortable hotel we find the table laid, not for dinner, but

BÁRRIS CUTTING, HUERCAL.

with an array of valuable specimens taken from the mine. Here is copper in practically every form—green carbonate of copper (malachite), blue carbonate of copper (azurite), red oxide of copper (cuprite), copper pyrites (yellow sulphuret of copper), and native copper. Added to this, the abundant association of cobalt—cobalt steel-gray, and pinkish purple, like the hue of peach-blossom in colour—and of bright emerald green tinted nickel, give the specimens an extremely beautiful appearance. The Monte Minado property comprises a copper hill not unlike the celebrated Mount Morgan in conformation, and has an area of 111½ acres. There are indications that point to Phœnician industry in the Huercal Mine, but the traces of later workmanship demonstrate conclusively that the Romans were the last of the Ancients who exploited this copper mountain on a large scale. It was the Romans who obliterated so carefully all traces of their handiwork, and filled up with rubbish the openings of their levels and other workings.

AGUILAS—THE RAILWAY.

The composition of the mountain, being of volcanic creation, it is a crumbling conglomerate mass; and unless the galleries are substantially timbered, the chances of their falling in present an instant danger to the miners. The men who are employed in the work of clearing the ancient galleries and putting in new levels have had many narrow escapes from falling earth. The Spanish mining regulations impose a very high rate of compensation in the case of accidents which occur in the mines; and as a doctor, whose duty it is to report on all casualties to the Department of Mines at Madrid, is attached to every working property, mine owners are exceptionally careful for the safety of their employées. On one occasion, when the Spanish representative of the present proprietary was being conducted by the manager through some new workings, a huge piece of the country rock fell upon his guide. His head was very luckily protected by one of the hard pot hats which the underground hands always wear; and although this helmet was badly dented, it probably saved the wearer’s life. The visitor was naturally much concerned, but the manager accepted the mishap with smiling philosophy. “You see,” he remarked, “I am not meant to be an expense to the owners, just yet.”

The labour of fortifying all the drives, as the work advanced, rendered exploitation both slow and expensive, while not entirely eliminating the element of danger from the operations. It was at one time intended to cut the lode by driving an adit into the mountain at a level of 150 feet below the ancient workings; but as it was discovered that this adit would have had to be shored up and cemented like an electric railway tube, the proposal was abandoned as impracticable. Since then, the difficulty has been successfully overcome by the adoption of another policy.

THE CHURCH AT HUERCAL.

The present leaseholders opened their negotiations for the purchase of the Huercal Mines on the strength of the mammoth dumps which from a number of assays made by different firms gave results varying from 5·71 per cent. to 10·40 per cent. of copper, 2·19 per cent. of nickel, and 3·13 per cent. of cobalt. It was argued that even if the mines were worked out, the dumps alone, if scientifically treated with modern machinery, would return a handsome profit. But very little exploration work was required to convince the Englishmen that so far from the property being exhausted of its mineral treasures, the bulk of the mineral had been little more than pecked at; and a more comprehensive system of development disclosed the fact that in El Monte Minado they had acquired a copper-cobalt mine of extraordinary richness. The consistent and surprising richness of the dumps in carbonates and copper pyrites made it abundantly clear that if the Romans, with their primitive methods and appliances, had regarded this ore as unprofitable for treatment, they must have found still more valuable deposits to engage their attention. There could be no other excuse for regarding five per cent. copper ore as débris. For the first time since the Roman miners left their Bonanza, the old workings were now cleared and the mystery was solved. These ancient galleries, as will be seen from the illustrations, were not driven on any systematic plan, but simply followed the lodes blindly through all their twists and curves. The idea of going boldly through the mountain and sweeping all before them does not appear to have been considered practicable by the Romans; and, doubtless, the danger of excavating in the soft country rock on a large scale had also been taken into their calculations. As the workings were freed from the rubbish that choked every drive and level, further traces of cobalt and nickel were encountered, and copper in its many beautiful forms became more abundant, and of richer quality. In the Napoleon gallery the ore was assayed to yield from 17·17 per cent. to 78·69 per cent. of copper, and at the extreme end of it was found to be in the face of a three-foot lode, in which native copper was also discovered.

THE CASTLE AND HARBOUR, AGUILAS.

As I follow Señor José Perez, the mine manager, through the old Napoleon and Esperanza galleries, it is impossible to resist the contagious enthusiasm with which he describes and exhibits the property. Certainly there is excuse on every side for their eulogiums. The copper in the lodes is very plentiful, while in the hanging-wall of the lodes important veins of pink and black cobalt are frequently to be found, and at all points where work had been done abundance of ore has been exposed. I was shown a large caverture, the roof of which is supported by a single column of ore, which had been left for that purpose by the Roman excavators. The miners who were clearing the drives at first took this circular chamber to be a break in the lode; but it is really a cavern in the walls, and roof of which nearly every variety of copper ore is to be seen. The spectacle is strikingly beautiful, and to the geologist it presents a feature of unusual interest. I have examined many caverns in mines, but this particular example, which has been christened “The Cathedral,” far exceeds in natural beauty anything of the kind that I have ever seen.

HEAPS OF COPPER ORE, HUERCAL.

A considerable amount of useful development had been accomplished by clearings and surface cuttings on both sides of the mountain, and these have been of the greatest importance in the adoption of the latest scheme for working the mine. In one clearing the outcrop had been stripped over about 1,100 feet, and by this means the copper and cobalt lode had been exposed for a distance of 70 feet, and similar work had been done on the opposite side of the hill. As the result of much anxious consideration and many discussions it was decided to undertake the opening up of the mines on a scale which, it is safe to presume, the Romans never dreamed of, viz., by removing the top of the hill to a depth of thirty feet, as one scalps an egg. The ancient workings, situated at a depth of 180 feet from the summit, having been located, and their dimensions ascertained, the over-burden, which had been found to be only 30 feet in thickness, will be removed, and from that point down to 180 feet, where the ancient galleries are situated, is a mass of copper, cobalt, and nickel ores that will be worked by the open-cutting process. A trench has been cut from the “Bárris” clearing connecting with the “Marin” clearing on the other side of the mountain, and four lines of rails have been constructed to work the ores, which are loaded up into the trucks and conveyed to the sides of the hill. No timbering is necessary, shafts and drives are done away with, and all risks to life are eliminated. The soft nature of the country rock renders the work, which in quartz would be an impossibility without the aid of dynamite, a simple pick-and-shovel business, and by this means the mountain is being gutted at the price of labour and cartage.