Shall without labour unto harvest come.”
The Spanish peasant can tend his land to produce sufficient for his
needs, and allow him to be independent of his fellows. He is more
contented and happier, and his best qualities are more strikingly
evident when he is “on his own” than in the mass. Unregulated labour is
congenial to him, and if his earnings are small, his wants are few.
Agriculture appeals to his temperament and satisfies his needs. Mining,
however, demands capital which he has not got, and experience which he
has no means of acquiring. It is something which he does not understand.
The Spanish noblemen and landed proprietors who own the mines neglect
this source of revenue for another reason. Englishmen, nobles or
commoners, who possess mineral land do not hesitate to turn their
possessions to practical account; but the Spaniard has the greatest
aversion to anything that savours of trade. In England pig-iron is
aristocratic, though tenpenny nails still remain scarcely respectable;
in Spain wholesale and retail are alike beneath the dignity of the
aristocracy.
[Illustration: TRANSPORT OF ORE, ARCOCHA, BILBAO.]
But, although since the days of the Ancients the minerals of Spain have
not been worked on the same enormous scale that was then adopted, the
industry has never been neglected to the extent that is generally
supposed. The majority of people cherish the delusion that since the
times of the Moors the metallic resources of the Peninsula have not been
exploited, and that the revival of activity that is now being witnessed
is a development of recent months. Nothing could be further from the
truth. That the eyes of English capitalists and investors have only
lately been turned upon this Bonanza is an indisputable fact; but in a
quiet unostentatious way the country has been mined without interruption
for centuries, and fabulous fortunes have been made by a comparatively
small number of people. And this select coterie of millionaire
mine-owners has, for years, managed to disguise the magnitude of its
operations and secure immunity from active competition.
Before the discovery of America thousands of mines were being
energetically exploited in Spain; new mineral discoveries were of daily
occurrence, and Royal Charters were granted by tens of thousands. But
the astounding richness of the mines of Peru and Central America enticed
whole armies of Spanish miners to the new Eldorado, and for a while the
home industry languished. Spain has never since re-attained its
commanding position as a mineral country in the eyes of the world; but
hundreds and hundreds of mines have been and are being worked by small
companies and private individuals, and the returns have been buried from
sight in official statistics and unpublished records. While the general
public were being kept out of the country as the result of this
carefully cultivated policy of suppression of facts, it was inevitable
that the plums should fall into the hands of a few wealthy monopolists.
The small local owners did not stand a chance. If they mined for copper
there was no market for their ore; the fall in the price of tin rendered
that industry for a while unprofitable, and the development of iron
properties necessitated the expenditure of more capital than the Spanish
proprietors could command. And the agents of the mammoth firms, who form
a close corporation for the exploitation of Spain’s mineral resources,
have been up and down the country, inspecting, and acquiring for ready
cash all the most promising properties. There has been no fuss, no
sensation, no publicity, and no incitement to competition. The direct
consequence of this condition of affairs has been to give currency to
all kinds of erroneous impressions with respect to the condition, the
profits, and the prospects of Spanish mining. A general belief has grown
up that the minerals have been largely worked out; that the difficulties
of transport, the vexatious mining regulations, and the paucity of
natural facilities have combined to spoil the industry--fallacies which
have been fostered by those whose interests were best conserved by their
promulgation.
[Illustration: LOS ALTOS HORNOS DEL DISIERTO, BILBAO.]
This condition of affairs has obtained very largely in the iron industry
of Northern Spain--an industry that is so widely known that it is
unnecessary here to make more than passing reference to it; but in the
Southern Provinces (principally) of Almeria, Granada, and Murcia, the
iron mines are being developed in the interests of a far larger number
of persons. Both foreign and Spanish capital is invested in the
enterprise, and many of the mines are fully equipped with wire tramways
and American waggons, and the promise of the future of the Southern iron
fields is well on its way to being realised. Foreign capitalists are
embarked in the venture which, until now, has attracted the attention of
few Englishmen; and, indeed, until recently Englishmen have only
possessed a vague idea of the magnitude and richness of Spain’s mineral
deposits. The French people realised it long ago, and attempted, in a
half-hearted and parsimonius manner, to develop them, but with only
indifferent success. Native enterprise proved even less satisfactory,
and the attempt of the Government to work the world-famous Rio Tinto
mines resulted in utter failure, and the sale of the property by public
tender in 1873. The Rio Tinto
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: THE LAGO CUTTING, RIO TINTO.]
The Rio Tinto and the Tharsis have been rightly regarded as the show
mines of Spain, and the former can, of course, hold its own among the
leading mines of the world; and, if it is unlikely that any other
Spanish property will rival this cupiferous wonder, there are many that,
under proper scientific management, will be found to be as relatively
rich and profitable. What is required in Spain is money for development
and brains to direct the operations. The existence of minerals, and of
copper particularly, has been demonstrated; and now that English capital
is slowly but in steadily increasing amount being invested in these
mines, a tremendous reaction in the industry may confidently be looked
for in this quarter of the globe. Within the past year or two quite a
number of promising properties have been acquired for the English
markets, and in every instance the results of the opening-up work have
more than realised the expectations of the proprietors. The company,
which was formed a short time ago to acquire an extensive property at
Coruña, is regarded by experts as a proposition of the highest
importance. Another company, called the Escurial Copper Mines, is
already working at a profit, and promises to give very large returns for
many years to come. La Recompensa Mines also appear to be rich in
copper, and the ore also contains precious metals, assays giving as much
as 12 ozs. of silver and 9½ dwts. of gold to the ton. An important fact
in connection with all these mines is that they are only distant two
miles from the Escurial Mines; consequently the cost of ore treatment
will be considerably reduced by reason of the proximity of large
smelting works now nearing completion. The latest reports from the
Huercal Copper-cobalt Mines, in the province of Almeria, all tend to
confirm the very high opinion which the English owners formed of their
value at the time they acquired the property; and the English-owned Rio
Rimal Mines in the province of Gerona are putting out very fine copper.
[Illustration: THE CUTTINGS, RIO TINTO.]
Among the other Spanish mines in which English capital has been
invested--and attention will be mainly confined to these in this
chapter--tin and silver-lead play a prominent part.
Although tin was smelted more than two thousand years ago, and some of
the first ore containing the metal was probably discovered by the
Ancients in that north-westerly province of Hispania, which the Romans
named Gallaeci, Spain is not to-day ranked among the great tin-producing
countries of the world. Pliny refers to Cornish tin, but most of the
metal contained in the ancient bronze weapons and objects must have been
derived from the Spanish mines. The ancient town of Orense, the capital
of the Galician province of the same name, which was founded by the
Romans, and greatly esteemed by them on account of its warm springs, is
the centre of the industry, and the country is scored and bored with
many indications of the enterprise and energy of the ancient miners.
Beariz, a little village in the mountains of Balcovo, is situated on a
hill that is tunnelled with Roman workings in what are probably the
richest tiniferous deposits in the richest tin district in Spain.
Enormous quantities of the mineral must from this mine alone have
rewarded the labours of the pioneers, who were so rudely interrupted by
the invasion of the victorious Visigoths, and no succeeding owners have
mined the property on the same gigantic scale.
[Illustration: AGUILAS, THE PORT OF ALMERIA.]
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: A TRENCH IN TIN ORE.]
Amongst the important properties may be mentioned the San Antonio, Maria
del Pilar and San Teodoro (situated at Agudo in the Almaden district)
and the San Luis at Piedrabuena in the province of Ciudad-Real, and the
silver-lead mines of Santa Maria, in the province of Badajoz. These
latter mines, which have been proved to a depth of over 700 feet, and
are now fully equipped with machinery, are the properties of the Santa
Maria Mining Company.
There are extensive coal and cement stone mines at Almatret, in the
province of Lerida. The coal or lignite, which is of good quality, is at
present worked, and about eighty tons per day are being shipped. This
will, it is anticipated, be shortly increased to 200 tons per day. The
cement is suitable for constructive work; and experts who have reported
upon the properties have expressed their belief that it will be found to
approximate very closely to the composition required for true Portland
cement. The quantity of cement stones is said to be practically
inexhaustible.
One department of mining enterprise, which has remained unexploited from
the time of the Romans until the last few years, is that of alluvial
gold washing. The Romans washed for gold over a larger area, and on a
much larger scale, than the chroniclers of the times were aware of. Even
Jacob (1831) confessed himself unaware of the extent on which their
operations were conducted, for modern investigation had disclosed that
in the provinces of Lugo, and Orense, and Léon many of the rivers were
washed by them on a scale of almost incomprehensible magnitude. So
profitable must the operations have been that, in one case, the river
Sil was diverged out of its course by means of a cutting made through a
mountain spur in order that the river bed might be exposed for the
precious metal. Considering the primitive means that the Romans
possessed, this must be regarded as a gigantic engineering feat; and it
has been estimated that if 10,000 men had been engaged on the work it
would have taken many years to complete. Before 1100 B.C. the banks of
the Guadalquivir were worked for alluvial gold, and sometime before 500
B.C. the auriferous
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING ALLUVIAL GOLD DISTRICT IN NORTH-WEST SPAIN.