Rio Tinto Other ES22012

San Miguel is an abandoned mining village int he province of Huelva occuping more than 6,000 m2 and with 267 hectares of land. The village can be rebuilt for individual housing, tourist development or similar use on most parts of the property. No planning or building permission is permitted in this district unless forming part of a restoration project such as this. The land lies in two parcels, one of 224 hectares comprising the village and surroundings, and the other of 29 hectares enclosing the reservoir and adjacent land. The water surface of the reservoir covers 14 hectares when full and is connected to the village by a canal which forms part of the main parcel of land. A bridge built for the railway line which originally services the mining community crosses the river that passes through the property and is in sound condition, capable of bearing heavy loads but only wide enough for a single vehicle at a time. The main access to the property does not require the use of this bridge. There are 19 buildings of approximately 6,000 m2 and on the other side of the river about 4-5,000 m2 of older buildings comprising 9 long rows of miners cottages. The city of Huelva and beaches are 90 km away and the city of Seville 120 km HISTORY The village was (and still is) called San Miguel. There are several small Roman shafts grouped in a small area near the old mine. As in all of southern Spain no mining activity took place after the Romans left until the nineteenth century when Rio Tinto and the other smaller mines started operating. Building at San Miguel must have started around 1845 although a large farmhouse stood there from a much earlier date. Mining continued discontinuously for over a century, frequently interrupted by market conditions or wars. A small pocket of gold-bearing ore from the surface was sold to Rio Tinto in 1994 but no real mining has been done since 1970 when the ore-bodies were considered depleted. The owner's family bought the property in 1926 and since then no underground mining has been carried out, all the extractive operations being done in the small open-cast. Rio Tinto rented this open-cast and worked it on a small scale for eleven years (1959-1970). Except the gold ores taken in 94 no further mineral has been mined. In its heyday around 1900 to 1914 the mine employed about 400 men of which about half actually lived and were housed there. The private narrow-gague railway carried the ore to a junction with the main Huelva line. San Miguel was equipped with a small, fully-staffed hospital, had its own shops and repair sheds for its locomotives and good housing for the levels expected at the time.
Community Features
Country/Mountain Views
Gravel/Earth Track
Please note: These property details have been provided by the original agent.