The innovations and technological improvements in the Río Tinto mines (1873-1897)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21701/bolgeomin.119.3.003Keywords:
economic history, mining, Río Tinto, Rio Tinto Company Ltd.Abstract
The Rio Tinto Mines, located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, have a great relevancy because the richness of their copperpyritic deposits. They have been exploited for 82 years, since 1873 until 1954, by The Rio Tinto Company Ltd., a British mining-metallurgical company, which, in those days, became one of the most important in this sector. From the time when the company acquired, “in perpetuity”, the mines to the Spanish State, launched a long-term project whose main objective was the return on the investment made by the consortium enterprises. The innovations and technological improvements incorporated to the exploitation are approached in this publication, as well as the commentary of the economic results reached by the same one between 1873 and 1897.
Downloads
References
Forbes, D. 1873a. Report by David Forbes to Messrs Matheson & Company- dated 25th April 1873. RTZ Archives, legajo 100/A/30.
Forbes, D. 1873b. Informe acerca del estado de las operaciones llevadas a cabo en Rio Tinto desde que pasó a ser propiedad de la compañía, escrita el 20-5-1873, legajo 1652 (100-A-30), en el Archivo Histórico de la Fundación de Minas de Río Tinto. Rio Tinto. Huelva.
Report and Accounts: 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, en el Archivo Histórico de la Fundación de Minas de Río Tinto. Rio Tinto. Huelva.
Cost Statement: 1897, en el Archivo Histórico de la Fundación de Minas de Río Tinto. Rio Tinto. Huelva.
Arenas Posadas, C. 1999. Empresa, mercados, mina y mineros. Rio Tinto (1873-1936). Universidad de Huelva, Huelva.
Avilés-Palacios, C. 2006. Análisis de la información financiera y analítica de The Río Tinto Company Ltd.(1873-1954). Tesis Doctoral inédita. Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid.
Harvey, C.E. 1981. The Río Tinto Company: an economic history of a leading mining concern: 1873-1954. Ed. Alison Hodge, Cornwall.
Flores Caballero, M. 1983. Río Tinto: La fiebre minera del XIX. Instituto de Estudios Onubenses Padre Marchena. Excma. Diputación Provincial de Huelva, Huelva.
Flores Caballero, M. 2007. Los Rothschild y la venta de las minas de Río Tinto en el proceso de la Ley General de Desamortización de Madoz. Universidad de Huelva, Huelva.
Gil Varón, L. 1981. Minería y migraciones. Río Tinto, 1873-1973. S.C.I. Tipográfica Católica. Córdoba.
López Morell, M. A. 2005. La Casa Rothschild en España. Ed. Marcial Pons, Madrid.
Pinedo Vara, I. 1963. Piritas de Huelva: su historia, minería y aprovechamiento. Ed. Summa, Madrid. Tafunell Sambola, X. y Carreras, A. (coord.) 2005. Estadísticas históricas de España, Siglos XIX-XX. Fundación BBVA, Madrid.
West, R. 1972. River of tears: the rise of the Río Tinto-Zinc Mining Corporation. Earth Island Ltd., Londres.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the print and online versions of this journal are the property of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.
All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. You may read the basic information and the legal text of the licence. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 licence must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the final version of the work produced by the publisher, is not allowed.
