WALK 19

Summarised in part from “Trenes, cables y minas de Almería” by J A Gomez Martinez y J V Coves Navarro; Inst. Estud. Almerienses (2000). ISBN 84-8108-202-3.

The first railways in the province of Almería operated from the 1880s; they were only a few kilometres long and often used traction animals to pull the wagons. They were introduced to reduce the cost of taking lead and iron ores, which were bulky, cheap and heavy, from the mines in the Cuevas de Almanzora region to the nearby sea. These local railways and cableways were often built with foreign materials and capital as were the later main line railways (The Great Southern Spanish Railway was British, down to the pencils used in the offices!)

Mining in Herrerias and the Almagrera mountain

The mining boom in the area was created following a relaxation of government taxes on mining profits in 1825 and the subsequent discovery in 1838 of the Jaroso vein of lead/silver ore on Almagrera mountain. This was extended some years later following the rediscovery of old silver mines to the south of the mountain at Herrerias. The resulting ‘gold rush’ created a multitude of small mine owners who for the first 50 years or so prospered but later started to fail, at least in part, because of their inability to collaborate in the removal of the vast amounts of ground water they encountered. By the early 20th century a German drainage company was successful in lowering the water table down to 167m below sea level but unfortunately it went out of business because of lack of payment for its services. This, plus the reduced value of lead and silver in the new century made it increasingly difficult for mines throughout the area to survive.

The original ore mined at the Herrerias site was silver but underground water became an increasing problem here also until an inundation from the River Almanzora in 1888 completely flooded the workings and stopped further work. After several years, two mine operations, one open-cast, commenced the extraction of iron ore on the same site, leading to the enormous hole at the present day called Las Rozas.

Increasing mechanisation, especially the introduction of railways, helped the mines survive for a few more years. In 1944 the government brought many of the surviving lead mines together in the south of Almagrera to form a new company with new resources, the Minas de Almagrera SA or MASA under the aegis of the Instituto Nacional de Industria or INI. The mines were linked underground by a common exit tunnel emerging from the south side of the mountain and new smelters and factory buildings were installed. The remains of most of these buildings still exist, including large apartment blocks and a curious dome-shaped shower block for the workers. Despite these improvements and the direct rail link from within the tunnel to the sea, MASA failed before the end of the 1950s.

The Almagrera cable and rail links

The first cableway in about 1900 linked a group of mines in the west of the Almagrera across the mountain to the coast at Cala Cristal, carrying mainly ores containing iron carbonate. In 1902 an electicity generator was installed at Villaricos,[presumably to service the cableway]. In 1901 another small railway was installed from the Jaroso lead mines to Cala de los Conchas via a tunnel across the mountain sloping down to the sea. At the seaward terminal there were depositories, ore-washing, smelting and ship-loading facilities, much of which is still visible. The first ship was loaded in 1912 but the terminal only appears to have worked for about a year and no further reference is made to it.

The first steam railway went from the Las Rozas mines to Villaricos from 1885 onwards; it was 5 km long and extended to the beach at Palomares where there was a smelter. It appears to have crossed the Almanzora on a mobile bridge, or at least the ore was carried across the river on such a bridge.

The best-known line in the area, started in 1876, originally passed from the Jaroso mines (half way along the west side of the Almagrera mountain), to Villaricos with a branch to the iron mines at Herrerias. It was narrow gauge and employed three steam engines. Another railway nearby (built by Siret, a well known engineer and archeologist living nearby) was eventualy amalgamated to it and the line straightened. At one point a branch extended more than a kilometre into the mountain at the INI mine entrance. The railway was French owned (La Société Minière d’Almagrera (SMA)) and it also took over the water drainage company, working at INI. Predominantly, the line carried iron ore from the Rozas pit to Villaricos. The double line ran 4 km along the north bank of the Almanzora river to Villaricos with trains pulled by four German diesel-engined locomotives. The ore was brought to the beach just south of the present harbour and the ships loaded via barges but in 1914 a new terminal was built with an endless belt system carrying the ore directly on board. This was finally dismantled in the 1950s.

More Info

R.G.Hurd, Nov 2004