Impressions of Spain

by Albert Frederick Calvert

The tiniferous areas of Spain are enormous; and the alluvial tin-bearing deposits, which extend for miles, are practically virgin ground. The Ancients, who worked the tin lodes of Galicia, entirely neglected these alluvials, and, more remarkable still, they have been neglected by every succeeding generation ever since. The quartz mining, which entails an enormous initial outlay in crushing and concentration plant, machinery, and explosives, was prosecuted to a limited extent until the slump, and the consequent fall in the price of tin, which caused the operations to be conducted at a loss. Immediately every tin mine in the country was shut down—the owners could only afford to work for quick cash profits. Small private companies are now making large profits from quartz mining—one company, of which nothing is heard by the general public, is shipping from thirty to forty tons of tin per month—but alluvial tin mining in Spain is only in its infancy. There are vast fields of tin-bearing alluvials that can be treated hydraulically at a cost of 2d. per ton, and yet there is not a single hydraulic plant, or a solitary dredger in operation in the country. When these districts are in full operation, when the tin fields of Beariz, of Arnoya, and Pontevedra and of Salamanca are being washed on a large scale, as they will be very shortly now, Spain will be near the head of the list in the production of tin.

There are two important reasons why tin stands so low in the table of Spain’s mineral output. In the first place the tiniferous areas are, comparatively speaking, so few that, although they may yield fortunes to their exploiters, the country can never compare with Australia and the United States in the aggregate output. And in the second place, although the tin is found in such exceeding richness that Señor Alfred Lasala, the eminent mining authority, reported on the Beariz mines, “It is almost impossible to cubicate the quantity of tin ore in these concessions,” yet the properties can only be made to pay when the mineral stands at a good price in the market. Spanish mine owners have very strong views upon the absolute necessity of making the mines pay their own way. The expenditure of capital in properly opening up the mines, with a view to future regular outputs is never entertained. “Spend nothing and get all you can without” is the motto they have adopted. Consequently the amount of development work accomplished on most locally owned properties is small, unscientific, and frequently dangerous.

WASHING FOR ALLUVIAL TIN.

The silver mines in the neighbourhood of Jadraque, in the province of Guadalajara, have supplied all the Spanish silver that has been coined for generations, and the supply of the metal would appear to be almost inexhaustible. The principal property in the district, called the Hiendelæncina, was at one time in the hands of an English company, who worked it for awhile unsuccessfully, and abandoned it when their capital was expended. On the advice of the Spanish mine foreman—advice which had been rejected by the English owners—the work was carried on by a Frenchman, who acquired the mine for the price of an old song. The lode was struck, as the foreman had predicted, and at the very spot he had pointed out; and within a year the lucky French owner had sold the mine for £160,000 cash.

Silver-lead, although not so widely distributed over Spain as are some other minerals, is found in no fewer than half-a-dozen provinces; and the industry is, generally speaking, in a healthy condition. In the case of the mines of Granada, transport difficulties have had to be overcome; and in Guadalajara, Murcia and Navarra, the want of capital and the absence of scientific methods have militated against their progress. The most favourable conditions for lead mining exist in the provinces of Badajoz, Jaén, Córdova and Ciudad-Real, where foreign capital has been more freely invested, and very large profits have already been obtained. Such astute investors as the Rothschilds are heavily interested in these latter districts, and of recent months several concessions have been acquired for the English market and are now being developed with English capital.

The number of Spanish mines that, having been abandoned by one set of owners, have been taken over by other persons and profitably exploited, is extraordinarily large—in fact, it might almost be said that there are few important properties in the Peninsula that have not changed hands at least once before enriching their proprietors. The Triumfo Silver-lead Mine at Córdova is an interesting case in point. So much fruitless exploration work was done on this mine that the French owners had come to the conclusion that further endeavours would only be wasted; but after listening to the combined entreaties of the Spanish foreman and their French manager, they reluctantly agreed to continue working for a few more weeks. Before the extension limit had been reached, an enormous seam of silver-lead had been located; and the output of the Triumfo to-day is only limited by the market requirements and the obligations entered into by the company. In La Mancha there is a silver lead-mine which a French company, after sinking an enormous amount of working capital and failing to strike the lode, abandoned as a “duffer.” On the representations of the Spanish mine captain, who never doubted the existence of the lode at depth, the property was taken over for a nominal consideration by some Scotch financiers. The Spaniard’s sanguine predictions were speedily verified; and for the expenditure of a trifling amount of further capital the Scotch investors acquired a mine of extraordinary richness, which has been returning them enormous dividends ever since.

In lead mining, the element of speculation is reduced to a minimum. In other branches of mining, 60 per cent. of the properties are failures; in silver-lead mining, 60 per cent. of the properties are successful. And, in the case of the 40 per cent. of the silver-lead mines that turn out badly, the explanation is that sufficient preliminary care has not been bestowed on proving the existence of the lodes before commencing operations. What may appear to be a lode may prove only a pocket; but where proper precautions are taken, this risk may be eliminated. The French engineers largely failed in their mining ventures in Spain for this very reason. They made haste too quickly, as the Americans say, and they were not expert economists. Then there is another favourable element in lead mining—it can be conducted with only a shaft and a winch—and as soon as the lode is reached, the mine commences to pay. A very large number of properties are locally owned, and the mines of Ciudad-Real, Badajoz, Jaén, Córdova, Seville and Almeria supply the markets of Europe with lead. It is found in large lodes, it is cheaply worked, and there is a ready market for the produce. It is, therefore, a branch of mining that commends itself to the fancy of the small capitalist; while the large capitalist is so eager to secure the ore that he will even advance money on it before it is taken out of the mine. The works at Peñarroya, and the smelting firms at Carthagena and elsewhere, absorb the entire output.

A TRENCH IN TIN ORE.