Impressions of Spain

by Albert Frederick Calvert

RIO TINTO MINES.

mines, like those of Tharsis, were extensively developed by the Romans, and so perfect was the smelting process they adopted, that in the heap of ancient slag on the surface hardly a trace of copper remains. The Phoenicians and Carthaginians both worked the Rio Tinto property prior to the advent of the Romans, and their galleries and shafts are found in every direction and at every depth explored by the Moderns. Especially on the North lode are found innumerable shafts and vast slag heaps, the latter testifying to the great extent of their smelting operations. On this lode are also to be seen the traces, now almost obliterated, of a Roman town and a Roman cemetery; while upon the summit of the Cerron Salomon (3,000 feet) are the outlines of a fortified enclosure covering many acres. From the time when the Roman occupation was broken up by the inroads of the Visigoths, until the middle of the sixteenth century Rio Tinto fell into utter oblivion. The Moors apparently never directed their attention to them. An attempt was made to reopen the mines under Philip II., but the purpose failed, and for another two centuries the property remain neglected.

THE LAGO CUTTING, RIO TINTO.

Ultimately they were leased to a Swede named Liebert Wolters in 1725, and the property reverted to the Crown in 1783. The Government at first leased the mines, but the wretchedly unsatisfactory result of this arrangement prompted them for a while to undertake the management. The loss to the Government was so great that they disposed of the mines in 1872 for £4,000,000 to a group of capitalists, who formed the present Rio Tinto Company. This company has developed the property on a vast scale, and in accordance with the dictates of modern science. A railway line has been constructed to Huelva, a distance of fifty-three miles, terminating in a pier nearly half-a-mile long in the River Odiel. This pier consists of two floors, used respectively for loading and unloading. It has, at some portions of its section, ten lines of railway abreast and above, and can easily berth five large steamers. The ore for export is brought from the mines and shot directly into the ships’ holds. The quantity of pyrites extracted in 1901 was 1,928,776 tons, of which 633,949 tons were exported. The sulphur ore shipped in that year was 119,683 tons, and 21,100 tons of copper were produced by treatment at the mines. Of the ore that is not exported a portion is worked up into copper by the cementation process, and the remainder by smelting. The sulphur fumes emitted by the roasting, which is a necessary prelude to parts of the processes, had denuded the surrounding hills of every vestige of vegetation before the company commenced operations; and the so-called Hill of the Pines has not borne a tree for thirty or forty years past.

At the Rio Tinto mines there are nearly fifty miles of railway above ground and over ten miles underground, all of which are available for locomotive traffic. The underground workings are all reached by adits or galleries running in from the hill-side on different levels. Nearly fifty locomotives are daily employed in these workings, besides those used for the traffic to Huelva. The original town has been greatly enlarged, and three or four separate villages have been built by the company for the housing of their army of workmen, which numbers between 10,000 and 11,000 persons. Stores have been opened to supply the needs of the workmen, schools have been founded and hospitals built, both at Huelva and the mines, and forty armed guards, recruited out of the Civil Guard, are maintained to preserve order and protect property. The company has also constructed several reservoirs for the storage of water, which is of such importance in copper mining. The largest of these, which is about twice the area of the Serpentine, has a depth of seventy feet, and a capacity of 2,570,000 tons, or 575,000,000 gallons. These figures convey some impression of the vastness of the undertaking, but another figure may be added, viz., the revenue of the company, which last year amounted to upwards of £1,800,000. Of this sum over one and three-quarter million sterling was profit on sale of produce.

THE FRAMES, RIO TINTO.

The Tharsis mines, though not such a remarkable proposition as the Rio Tinto, form a notable property. They appear to have been practically abandoned from the time of the Roman occupation until 1865, and were not worked at a profit until they were acquired by the present Scotch company. Since then, however, an enormous quantity of ore has been extracted, and last year a total output of some 400,000 tons of metal returned a profit of over £320,000. The mines are connected by a railway twenty-eight miles in length with the pier station at Corrales, a short distance from Huelva, on the opposite bank of the river Odiel. A fine iron pier, 765 yards long, allows the ore for export to be carried direct to the ships. The Tharsis mines and the Lagunazo mines are now yielding considerably smaller returns of copper ore; but at the Calanas mines the output is steadily increasing, and vigorous exploration work in this portion of the property has disclosed, in addition to the already proved resources of ore which can be profitably treated for the production of copper, a large mass of low-grade ore, which, though comparatively poor in copper is rich in sulphur.