In 1858 James Mason, managing director and chief mining engineer of Mason & Barry Ltd, bought the land around the monastery of São Domingos in Portugal while still technical director of mines at Tharsis in Spain; Mason & Barry acquired the mining rights from the French holder, La Sabina. By 1864 São Domingos was the most productive copper mine in Europe partly thanks to the railway Mason had constructed to the new port on Rio Guadiana at Pomerão, founded by the company. From there it was shipped to the estuary near Vila Real de Santo António where export dues were paid and the ore loaded onto freighters. In 1866 Tharsis Sulphur & Copper Company, founded by Sir Charles Tennant, put together a consortium of Scottish investors to acquire the mining rights at the eponymous location in the province of Huelga. One of the company’s first activities was to build a railway line to, and a quay upon, the coast 50 kilometres away. The company became the leading pyrite seller in Spain with over 40 percent of the market, shipping the overwhelming majority of its ore to Britain from what was at the time the small port and fishing town of Huelva. In 1873 the Spanish government auctioned the mining rights to another area. A syndicate led by Hugh Matheson, which included German banking (Rothschild, Goldschmidt) money, tendered the winning bid. Matheson, related to the Mathesons of Jardine & Matheson Company, had refused a post in that organisation because of their central involvement in the extremely lucrative opium ‘trade’ with China and their role in instigating the Opium Wars. Nevertheless, he accepted capital backing from them for his new enterprise, the Rio Tinto Company, control of which was to pass to the Rothschild family fifteen years later. So another railway line was built to the port of Huelva, this time shadowing the Rio Tinto. Originally designed to carry ore, it also developed into a passenger service with a number of stations connecting two hundred and forty kilometres of branch lines to other mines, coming together at Niebla, an ancient town halfway to the sea. As the line approaches Huelva it turns away from the Rio Tinto towards the Rio Odiel estuary, being deeper and more navigable. It was here, a few kilometres south of the Tharsis quay, that the Rio Tinto Company built its kilometre-long curved quay out into deeper water. The companies were typical nineteenth century enterprises, British-founded and managed undertakings primarily concerned with shipping as much unrefined ore from the Iberian peninsula in the most efficient manner possible. This meant getting it to the sea and onto freighters bound for northern Europe where burgeoning chemical works waited for the magic of pyrite to produce sulphur – and thus sulphuric acid – with its many uses in industrial processes including explosives and fertiliser, along with iron, copper, gold and cadmium.
The industrial scale of Rio Tinto ’s Cerra Colorado mine, still in operation
The greatest changes, however, came in the second half of the nineteenth century when British capital, accumulated from the early industrial revolution and imperial trade (sugar, slaves, tobacco, cotton, tea, spice), saw further opportunities for substantial profits by meeting the demands of a burgeoning chemical industry. In need of income, the Spanish and Portuguese governments issued licences to foreign mining enterprises. The result was mining on an industrial scale.
Abandoned marshalling yard station building, Niebla. below: Tharsis Quay.
all images Tim Sharp
21
on site review 49 :: shorelines
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator