Impressions of Spain

by Albert Frederick Calvert

The Lugo Goldfields.

The Lugo Goldfields, Limited, has acquired three groups of properties in the province of Lugo (Galicia). These concessions, which are situated on the main road to Madrid, and twenty-six miles from Lugo, consist of 525 acres of quartz country and alluvial property seventy-five acres in extent, which contain strong evidences that the Romans, during their occupation of the Peninsula, washed from it large quantities of alluvial gold. On the first group, broad gold-bearing quartz reefs, which increase in width from six feet to twenty-four feet as depth is reached, have been traced for many miles on each side of the property; and on the second group the reefs are highly mineralised, and contain gold, silver, copper, and lead. The reefs are situated in hills rising from 350 feet to 450 feet above the river-bed, which will enable the ore to be run out of the galleries by means of trucks on rails, and so save, for some considerable time at least, the initial outlay and annual expenditure entailed by the erection and maintenance of pumping and haulage machinery. In taking the samples of stone for assay, good, bad, and indifferent stone was included, and the calculations as to the value of the ore was based on a minimum extraction of five dwts. of gold per ton. The assays gave returns varying from three dwts. two grs. up to sixteen dwts. eight grs., and the ore has been tested to be eminently adapted for concentration. Water, labour, and timber present no difficulties, and the working of the mines should be carried on at a low cost. It is estimated that the expense of mining the ore, delivering the concentrates in Swansea, and paying the charges for treatment there, will amount to 10s. per ton of ore crude, which means that two and a-half dwts. of pure ore will pay all expenses.

Silver-Lead.
The Santa Maria Mining Company, Limited, Silver-Lead Mines (Badajoz, Spain).

LAS PALMAS BRIDGE, BADAJOZ.

Among the most important of the silver-lead properties in Spain, mention has been made to the group in the province of Badajoz that has been floated in London under the title of the Santa Maria Mining Company, Limited. This property, which originally consisted of four leases, having an area of 138 acres, has been since increased to 166 acres, by the acquisition of the Santa Florentina lease at Mestanza, Puertollano, in the neighbouring province of Ciudad-Real. So far as the position of the Santa Maria property is concerned, it could not easily be bettered. It is only six miles distant from the railway system, with which it is connected by two good roads, and is situated quite near to the Rothschilds’ Smelting Works at Peñarroya. Timber is procurable at a cheap rate from Cuenca and Portugal; there is an abundance of water obtainable for all mining purposes; while labour, which is obtained from two villages in the vicinity, is cheap, plentiful, and efficient.

The history of the Santa Maria group presents, as do so many other mines in Spain, an object lesson in mismanagement and wilful disregard for the future of the property. It was first opened in 1845 by a Portuguese Company, and it is abundantly proved from the reports of their consulting engineer, and from the condition in which the mines was left, that the work could not have been conducted in a more haphazard and destructive fashion. No attention was given to exploration or development work; and, doubtless, acting under peremptory orders, all labour was concentrated on the extraction of the rich available ore. The shaft, instead of being perpendicular, was sunk at a vertical angle, and was so badly timbered that it was always in a dangerous condition. The galleries, being left without sufficient supports, frequently collapsed, and work was conducted at imminent risk of life to the miners. The official figures showing the quantity of ore won by the adoption of these methods are not available, but the great heaps of débris which have accumulated show that the amount was something very considerable; and it was not until 1889, when the policy of ore-grabbing could no longer be safely proceeded with until money had been spent in repairing the shaft and the workings, that the mine was abandoned and became flooded up to the first level.

During this time the Santa Maria lode was worked by its faulty shaft down to the seventh level, but the dressing of the ore was so defective that the dumps are found to contain nearly five per cent. of galena. From this refuse the present management have been obtaining from ten to twelve tons of “dressed” ore per month, giving fifty-five per cent. of lead and 600 grammes of silver per ton.

When Señor Villanova purchased the property in 1889 he took from the first level of the Santa Maria shaft about 100 tons of ore, which gave a return of seventy-five per cent. of lead and 850 grammes of silver per ton; and, then, in order to avoid the expense of unwatering the mine and repairing the shaft, he decided to confine his operations to the San Juan shaft, upon which little work had been done. The winding engine was accordingly removed and re-erected at this shaft, which was sunk to a depth of about 540 feet. Six levels were driven, in each of which the lode was found to be mineralised throughout. Señor Villanova continued to work the mine on the principle of making it entirely self-supporting. No exploration or dead-work was undertaken, and when a fault was encountered in the eastern levels the pursuit of the vein was abandoned. This fault has since been cut through in all the levels, and the lode has in every case been found to continue on the other side. The property was starved for working capital, no cross-cutting was allowed on account of the outlay it would involve, and the stoping was only carried on where the mineral was rich. Yet even under these conditions Señor Villanova extracted from this shaft alone over 3,000 tons of ore, which yielded him substantial profits.

When the present company took over the mine they were advised that both the Santa Maria and the San Juan lodes could be better and more economically worked by means of the Santa Maria shaft, and they decided to have this shaft unwatered and put into thorough repair down to the bottom level. The shaft had to be enlarged and galleries cleared, and all the workings retimbered. These operations, although vigorously prosecuted, took longer than was anticipated.

VIEW OF THE CASTLE, PONFERRADA.

GENERAL VIEW, LINARES.

Twelve years of neglect had reduced this part of the mine to such a condition that the task of clearing the congested galleries was not only difficult but highly dangerous. The timber with which the workings were fortified was so rotten that the removal of the rubble brought down the woodwork with it. The old supports had consequently to be replaced by new timber as the work progressed; and as the galleries were constructed on a small scale, the want of space rendered it impossible to employ a large number of hands. At the same time all the buildings and the masonry work on the property, which had also fallen into decay, were repaired or rebuilt; the old engine-house at the San Juan shaft was replaced by a substantial building, tram-lines and trucks were purchased, the roads were overhauled and repaired, and the property was completely equipped and put into thorough working order. Yet in spite of all this dead work, the exploitation of Santa Maria has never been a severe charge upon the company, for the return of ore per month from the San Juan lode was sufficient to defray all the expenses incurred in development, and to return a profit on the mine. During the early part of last year the Peñarroya works were being rebuilt and enlarged, and the ore had to be sold at Carthagena; but since the reopening of the works the whole of the output has been purchased locally, and a considerable saving has been effected thereby.