To see a google map of this area click here    To see a satellite photograph of the mines click here

I had been aware of the Riotinto mines since I was very young. I remember overheard adult conversations of people who had possessed Riotinto shares and had done very well and from people who wished that they had bought Riotinto shares.  I think that I realised that the Riotinto mines were somewhere in Spain but did not know exactly where they were. Soon after I came to live in Portugal in 1998 I became aware of the exact location of the mines when the Guadalquivir estuary was polluted by the accidental release of 5 million cubic meters of acid waste from the processing of pyrite ore. The waste entered ecologically sensitive and protected areas such as the nature reserve of the National Park of Doñana, it came from the Riotinto mines.

Even before the mines were intensively worked from about 1872, the Rio Tinto lived up to its name and the river ran with water coloured a redish brown and still does today. On my way to Madrid a few years ago I rode up the N435 from Huelva past the mines and noticed the blood red colour of the water in a small stream to the east of the road.

In May 2008 we visited Mina São Domingos in Portugal just to the west of the Spanish border it was following that visit that I discovered that Riotinto, just 70 kilometers to the east, had a particularly interesting history. The mineral wealth was already legendary in ancient times. Many people believe that these are the mines of King Solomon, and a section of the area is still known as Cerro Salomón today. The nearby villages of Zalamea la Vieja (now called Nerva) and Zalamea la Real are also named after the biblical king. It was stories of the Iberian Peninsula's mineral wealth that drew Phoenician merchants to this part of Spain, following the Phoenicians, the area was invaded by Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths and Moors. The Riotinto mines that they worked so intensively were the most valuable possession in the known world at that time.


After the Romans left the Iberian Peninsular in around 400 AD, history relates that the mines were abandoned and not rediscovered until 1556. However, I am sure that both the Visigoths and the Moors must have mined in this area. Mining on a large volume basis did not start again until 1724. The Spanish government sold the mines to a British syndicate in 1873, the British company wasted no time and Riotinto quickly became the most important source of copper and sulphur in the world. The mining company built Bella Vista, a purpose-built village for British employees. Known as the 'colonia inglesa', the British style houses, neatly trimmed gardens, tennis lawns and social club of Bella Vista are still there. This 'British' village in the middle of the Andalusian countryside also features a Presbyterian Church and mining museum. Several kilometres away is the Spanish town of Riotinto, built to replace an older settlement that was demolished as a result of  the mine's expansion.

In September 2009 we decided to visit the Riotinto mines over a weekend, looking on the internet for a hotel the closest hotel to the mines was a Posada at Valdezufre about 20 kilometers to the north. We booked a room and set off down the A22 towards the Spanish border stopping for a quick lunch at a motorway services just before leaving Portugal. Just after Huelva we turned left onto the N435 and rode north, a beautiful ride on a winding road through unspoilt countryside, after about 50 kilometers we came to Zalamea la Real and after passing through this small town turned off right for Minas de Riotinto.

Naively I had some sort of romantic notion that seeing the mines would in some way transport my mind back 3000 years to the time of King Solomon, the reality of what we saw could not have been more different.

What we found was a vast area of country totally devastated by opencast mining as can be seen by the photographs, not just one but numerous enormous and very deep excavations with ruined mine buildings and machinery that has been just left to rot.  At the bottom of each mine there was a pool of stagnant acid waste, mercury and other heavy metals left over from the processing of pyrite ore.  I have to admit that we were deeply shocked by the damage to what must have been a beautiful area of countryside and with absolutely no attempt to either prevent the ongoing pollution, repair the damage or tidy up the abandoned mining machinery. Mining on a very large scale has now finished at Riotinto, however there are some modern buildings which appear to be used now for the extraction of ore. The company lives on, mining in other countries, making good profits for its shareholders, I just hope that other countries where this company is mining have agreements to ensure that Riotinto clean up behind them. Spain clearly did not make such an agreement with them.

Transport of the ore from the Riotinto mines was originally by very small boats down the River Odiel to Huelva where it was loaded onto ships and then later a railway line was built all the way down to Huelva which ended with a long pier, which is still there today, so that the railway cars could load their ore directly onto ships.

There were many other mines to the west of Riotinto, these mines transported their ore across to La Caja on the river Guadiana a few kilometers to the north of Sanlucar de Guadiana, where the bunkers on the stone quay for loading the ore onto ships are still there today as can be seen in the photograph to the right. This small port about 30 kilometers up the Guadiana river was used until 1966 when the mouth of the Guadiana silted up making it difficult for large ships to get in and out of the river. To see a satellite photograph of La Caja click here.

We stayed at Riotinto just long enough to take photographs of the dreadful devastation and then rode on to the north to find our hotel at  Valdezufre, a beautiful ride on a minor road through undulating countryside with cork oak and olive trees. Valdesufre is quite a small village and the Pousada an attractive and comfortable hotel. We had a good dinner, slept well and in the morning had a rather indifferent breakfast before riding back to the Algarve via Aracena.

Aracena is in the centre of an agricultural area growing olives, figs and almonds is well known for its castle originally a Moorish fortress (shown in the photograph to the left) and recaptured from the Moors by the Portuguese who gave it to the Knights Templar who built a church there. There are limestone caves inside the mound under the castle which are said to be the most spectacular in Europe and known as the grotto of Maravillas (Marvels), it has beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, at 1,500 metres it is one of the longest caves in Spain. Inside the cave there are twelve halls and six lakes.

From Aracena we rode back down the N435 via  Zalamea la Real to just north of Huelva and back home to the Algarve via the A22. If I go back to that area, it won't be to see the mines again, I found seeing that devastation a profoundly shocking experience and not one that I would like to repeat. But I would like to see inside Aracena Castle and the Cave of Marvels.