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Mines/Spain

Riotinto mining district

Riotinto mining district, Spain, open pit, mining silver, copper, lead.

Why Riotinto mining district is famous

Silver production peaked in Roman times and continued until the crisis of the early 3rd century AD, after which copper lodes were worked. Greenland ice isotopes indicate about 70 percent of the metal worked between 150 BC and AD 50 came from Riotinto. A Roman lead ingot was found in 2015.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1873Rio Tinto Company registered in London3

What kind of deposit

Volcanogenic massive sulphide (Kuroko type)

Riotinto mining district today

Where silver is mined todayWhere copper is mined todayWhere lead is mined todayMining in Spain

Where next

People

Investigated byPliny the ElderHe wrote about Spain's silver and copper after serving as procurator there.4

Mines

An example ofLas MedulasRio Tinto's silver peaked in Roman times. Las Medulas was Rome's main gold source.1Same kind of depositMount Lyell mineRio Tinto's lodes were worked in Roman times. Mount Lyell in Tasmania is a copper mine of the same family.1ExamplesWadi Faynan (Khirbat Faynan)Rome expanded Faynan after the annexation of AD 106. Rio Tinto's copper lodes came after the 3rd century.5

Events

Led toRio Tinto Company registered in LondonSpain sold the mines in 1869. The Rio Tinto Company was registered in London in 1873.3

Places

Located inMinas de RiotintoRiotinto mining district sits at Minas de Riotinto.1

Deposit types

An example ofVolcanogenic massive sulphide (Kuroko type)Riotinto mining district belongs to the volcanogenic massive sulphide family of deposits.6

Sources

  1. Riotinto mining district study Onoba (journal article, 2021)
  2. Wikidata entity Q97628363
  3. History of Rio Tinto
  4. Pliny the Elder Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911 (public-domain text on Wikisource), article by J. E. Sandys
  5. Wadi Faynan copper mining World Archaeology
  6. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

Pictures on this page: Grande Illustrazione del Lombardo Veneto Vol 3 Plinio Secondo 300dpi.jpg, Geoffrey (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0).