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Áliva Mine, Camaleño, Cantabria, Spaini
Regional Level Types
Áliva MineMine (Reclaimed)
CamaleñoMunicipality
CantabriaAutonomous Community
SpainCountry

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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
43° 10' 37'' North , 4° 47' 39'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Mine (Reclaimed) - last checked 2024
Köppen climate type:
Nearest Settlements:
PlacePopulationDistance
Posada de Valdeón503 (2012)10.7km
Potes1,481 (2018)14.3km
Carreña2,262 (2011)16.1km
Oseja de Sajambre327 (2012)20.3km
Onís837 (2008)22.7km
Mindat Locality ID:
7045
Long-form identifier:
mindat:1:2:7045:7
GUID (UUID V4):
3ddbe2c0-3fcf-4e44-8fe0-ad36b852bc6b
Other/historical names associated with this locality:
Las Mánforas Mine; La Almanzora Mine; Picos de Europa; Santander
Other Languages:
Spanish:
Minas de Áliva, Camaleño, Cantabria, España


This locality is world-famous for its specimens of transparent sphalerite in several colours. The locality is often labelled as "Picos de Europa, Santander" - "Picos de Europa" being rather vague since those mountains cover bits of three different Autonomous Regions and various municipalities, and "Santander" being just an obsolete name (historical region) for Cantabria.

The Áliva mines, currently closed and with the environment restored from an environmental point of view, are located in the Central Massif of the Picos de Europa, in Espinama in the municipality of Camaleño (Cantabria). They are also known as the Las Manforas mines, a corruption of one of the concessions, officially called Almanzora. They were exploited mainly to obtain zinc ores during the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. The high altitude at which they were located forced the mining to be carried out for only a few months a year. These mines are known worldwide for their abundance of a variety of sphalerite, known as "caramel blende", highly appreciated by collectors and museums, and which has even been cut into gems.

The presence of galena in the area has been known since ancient times, and since 1557 licences were granted to mine for lead minerals in this area.

Galena is relatively rare, and sphalerite was of no use at that time. This, together with the poor weather conditions for most of the year and the difficulty in communications, is assumed to have prevented significant work from being carried out. However, it is known that shepherds occasionally collected pieces of galena, which they later sold for use in glazing pottery. The presence of this mineral is what gave its name to the so-called Canal del Vidrio.

In 1854, the Compagnie Royale Asturienne des Mines began industrial-scale exploitation of this deposit. Other companies also exploited concessions in this area, including the companies La Providencia and the Sociéte Anonyme des Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille Montagne. The La Providencia company fundamentally exploited the Almanzora concession.

At the beginning of the 1950s, all the concessions became the property of the Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas (RCAM), which exploited them through subsidiary companies. The greatest production was obtained between 1968 and 1877, closing in the summer of 1989.

In total, about 600,000 tons of material, with 13% zinc, were extracted through underground work on six levels. Between 1985 and 1989, mineral extraction on an industrial scale was made compatible with the recovery of specimens for sale to collectors.

The Áliva mines are located in the upper part of the Picos de Europa formation, in an area that has undergone an intense dolomitization process. The exploited mineralization, a mineralized body measuring 200 meters by 400 meters, with a thickness of up to 20 meters, was located at the contact between a non-dolomitized limestone body, known as Muro Limestone, and the dolomite. Mineralization occurred throughout three different hydrothermal processes. The first gave rise to grainy sphalerite and galena mineralization, the second to caramel sphalerite and galena mineralization and the third to late minerals.

The most important mineral from an industrial point of view was sphalerite, and also the one that has provided the most notable specimens, considered among the best in the world for this mineral. The Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas extracted a huge specimen with a surface area of ​​one square meter made up of decimetric crystal faces that was displayed in its facilities in Reocín.​ The sphalerite of the caramel blende variety appeared in geodes in the first 5 levels of the mine, as aggregates of complex, interpenetrated crystals, with few visible faces on each crystal, often curved. Twins are frequent, and distinguishable by the presence of incoming angles. The colour can be reddish-orange, due to the presence of mercury, copper, and cadmium; greenish (with less copper than in the previous case) or yellow, which contains traces of bismuth.

In addition to sphalerite, galena also appears in the Áliva mines, which has been found as spathic masses and as small-sized cuboctahedral crystals. During the exploitation stage, galena was also recovered, but in a much smaller quantity than that obtained from sphalerite. Pyrite appears occasionally, and cinnabar, in powder form, only anecdotally. The secondary zinc minerals, smithsonite, hydrozincite and hemimorphite, are scarce, and were only found in the most superficial area. Among the gangue minerals, the predominant one is dolomite, in massive form or as aggregates of small curved crystals, in the shape of a saddle, characteristic of this mineral. Calcite crystals also appear, which can reach a size of up to 5 centimetres, and very occasionally violet-coloured fluorite.

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.


Mineral List


11 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Note: data is currently VERY limited. Please bear with us while we work towards adding this information!

Select Rock List Type

Alphabetical List Tree Diagram

Detailed Mineral List:

Calcite
Formula: CaCO3
Cinnabar
Formula: HgS
Dolomite
Formula: CaMg(CO3)2
Fluorite
Formula: CaF2
Galena
Formula: PbS
Goethite
Formula: α-Fe3+O(OH)
Hemimorphite
Formula: Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O
Hydrozincite
Formula: Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6
Malachite
Formula: Cu2(CO3)(OH)2
Smithsonite
Formula: ZnCO3
Sphalerite
Formula: ZnS
Colour: orange, red, yellow, green
Description: Larger and fine crystals, transparent or translucent, in many cases, gemmy quality. A world classic location.

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts
Sphalerite2.CB.05aZnS
Galena2.CD.10PbS
Cinnabar2.CD.15aHgS
Group 3 - Halides
Fluorite3.AB.25CaF2
Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides
Goethite4.00.α-Fe3+O(OH)
Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates
Calcite5.AB.05CaCO3
Smithsonite5.AB.05ZnCO3
Dolomite5.AB.10CaMg(CO3)2
Malachite5.BA.10Cu2(CO3)(OH)2
Hydrozincite5.BA.15Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6
Group 9 - Silicates
Hemimorphite9.BD.10Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O

List of minerals for each chemical element

HHydrogen
H Goethiteα-Fe3+O(OH)
H HemimorphiteZn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O
H HydrozinciteZn5(CO3)2(OH)6
H MalachiteCu2(CO3)(OH)2
CCarbon
C CalciteCaCO3
C DolomiteCaMg(CO3)2
C HydrozinciteZn5(CO3)2(OH)6
C MalachiteCu2(CO3)(OH)2
C SmithsoniteZnCO3
OOxygen
O CalciteCaCO3
O DolomiteCaMg(CO3)2
O Goethiteα-Fe3+O(OH)
O HemimorphiteZn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O
O HydrozinciteZn5(CO3)2(OH)6
O MalachiteCu2(CO3)(OH)2
O SmithsoniteZnCO3
FFluorine
F FluoriteCaF2
MgMagnesium
Mg DolomiteCaMg(CO3)2
SiSilicon
Si HemimorphiteZn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O
SSulfur
S CinnabarHgS
S GalenaPbS
S SphaleriteZnS
CaCalcium
Ca CalciteCaCO3
Ca DolomiteCaMg(CO3)2
Ca FluoriteCaF2
FeIron
Fe Goethiteα-Fe3+O(OH)
CuCopper
Cu MalachiteCu2(CO3)(OH)2
ZnZinc
Zn HemimorphiteZn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O
Zn HydrozinciteZn5(CO3)2(OH)6
Zn SmithsoniteZnCO3
Zn SphaleriteZnS
HgMercury
Hg CinnabarHgS
PbLead
Pb GalenaPbS

Other Databases

Wikipedia:https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minas_de_%C3%81liva_(Cantabria)
Wikidata ID:Q109314859

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

Eurasian PlateTectonic Plate
EuropeContinent
Spain

This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

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