Áliva Mine, Camaleño, Cantabria, Spaini
Regional Level Types | |
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Áliva Mine | Mine (Reclaimed) |
Camaleño | Municipality |
Cantabria | Autonomous Community |
Spain | Country |
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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:
Place | Population | Distance |
---|---|---|
Posada de Valdeón | 503 (2012) | 10.7km |
Potes | 1,481 (2018) | 14.3km |
Carreña | 2,262 (2011) | 16.1km |
Oseja de Sajambre | 327 (2012) | 20.3km |
Onís | 837 (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 ElementsCommodity 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 DiagramDetailed Mineral List:
ⓘ Calcite Formula: CaCO3 |
ⓘ Cinnabar Formula: HgS |
✪ Dolomite Formula: CaMg(CO3)2 References: |
ⓘ 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. |
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts | |||
---|---|---|---|
ⓘ | Sphalerite | 2.CB.05a | ZnS |
ⓘ | Galena | 2.CD.10 | PbS |
ⓘ | Cinnabar | 2.CD.15a | HgS |
Group 3 - Halides | |||
ⓘ | Fluorite | 3.AB.25 | CaF2 |
Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
ⓘ | Goethite | 4.00. | α-Fe3+O(OH) |
Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates | |||
ⓘ | Calcite | 5.AB.05 | CaCO3 |
ⓘ | Smithsonite | 5.AB.05 | ZnCO3 |
ⓘ | Dolomite | 5.AB.10 | CaMg(CO3)2 |
ⓘ | Malachite | 5.BA.10 | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
ⓘ | Hydrozincite | 5.BA.15 | Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 |
Group 9 - Silicates | |||
ⓘ | Hemimorphite | 9.BD.10 | Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O |
List of minerals for each chemical element
H | Hydrogen | |
---|---|---|
H | ⓘ Goethite | α-Fe3+O(OH) |
H | ⓘ Hemimorphite | Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O |
H | ⓘ Hydrozincite | Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 |
H | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
C | Carbon | |
C | ⓘ Calcite | CaCO3 |
C | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
C | ⓘ Hydrozincite | Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 |
C | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
C | ⓘ Smithsonite | ZnCO3 |
O | Oxygen | |
O | ⓘ Calcite | CaCO3 |
O | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
O | ⓘ Goethite | α-Fe3+O(OH) |
O | ⓘ Hemimorphite | Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O |
O | ⓘ Hydrozincite | Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 |
O | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
O | ⓘ Smithsonite | ZnCO3 |
F | Fluorine | |
F | ⓘ Fluorite | CaF2 |
Mg | Magnesium | |
Mg | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
Si | Silicon | |
Si | ⓘ Hemimorphite | Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O |
S | Sulfur | |
S | ⓘ Cinnabar | HgS |
S | ⓘ Galena | PbS |
S | ⓘ Sphalerite | ZnS |
Ca | Calcium | |
Ca | ⓘ Calcite | CaCO3 |
Ca | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
Ca | ⓘ Fluorite | CaF2 |
Fe | Iron | |
Fe | ⓘ Goethite | α-Fe3+O(OH) |
Cu | Copper | |
Cu | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
Zn | Zinc | |
Zn | ⓘ Hemimorphite | Zn4Si2O7(OH)2 · H2O |
Zn | ⓘ Hydrozincite | Zn5(CO3)2(OH)6 |
Zn | ⓘ Smithsonite | ZnCO3 |
Zn | ⓘ Sphalerite | ZnS |
Hg | Mercury | |
Hg | ⓘ Cinnabar | HgS |
Pb | Lead | |
Pb | ⓘ Galena | PbS |
Other Databases
Wikipedia: | https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minas_de_%C3%81liva_(Cantabria) |
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Wikidata ID: | Q109314859 |
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
Eurasian PlateTectonic Plate
- Cantabrian-Pyrenean BeltOrogenic Belt
EuropeContinent
Iberian PeninsulaPeninsula
Spain
- Picos de Europa National ParkMountain Range
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Áliva Mine, Camaleño, Cantabria, Spain