The mining heritage of Bellmunt

Bellmunt del Priorat was the center of an important mining basin, which also extended to the neighboring municipalities of Falset and El Molar. Numerous traces of mining activity remain in the landscape, such as slag heaps, which proliferate throughout much of the municipal area. The most visible remains correspond to the industrial-scale mining operations of the 19th and 20th centuries, although mining activity has taken place with greater or lesser intensity since the Late Bronze Age. Among the most important operations are the Eugènia mine (current headquarters of the Museum of Mines), the Règia mine, and the Old Règia mine. Especially interesting are the mining colony built by the company Minas del Priorato, S.A. within the urban center and the Mine House annexed to the Eugènia mine complex, which was successively the headquarters of the companies Folch y Albiñana and Minas del Priorato, S.A.

The Eugènia mine

It is a unique industrial and mining complex, located near the urban center of Bellmunt del Priorat. The complex consists of a whole series of industrial facilities such as the ore washer, the foundry and its filters, the mechanical workshop, the carpentry, the compressor room, the power station and the engine room. Among the mine’s facilities is the headframe of the extraction machine from a less important mine, the Alemanya mine, which has become the symbol of the Museum.

The Eugènia mine was the most important lead mine in Catalonia, due to its extraction yield and the high quality of its ore. In addition, it is an exploitation with a long history over time. The origins of the Eugènia mine date back to 1870, to the first works carried out at the old Inocenta mine which during the 1890s would become the Eugènia mine. The mine was in operation almost without interruption until 1972.

The mining colony

Around 1920, one of the most prosperous periods for the mines, the company Minas del Priorato, S.A. built the first mining colonies, to provide housing for workers who arrived with their families from other mining areas of the State, mainly from Andalusia. As mining activity prospered, more workers from outside arrived, making it necessary to build new mining colonies, expanding the municipality of Bellmunt del Priorat. These new housing complexes were built in different stages until the 1960s, forming an important mining center following the industrial colony model already established in Catalonia. The other services the company offered to the miners: the company store, medical service, the Euterpe (cinema, theater, and dance hall), the social club, the football field, etc.

Lead

Lead is the softest and heaviest of the common metals. Galena –lead sulfide– is the main ore mineral of lead. This is the mineral exploited in this mining area.

The ease with which lead can be worked makes it very suitable for applications requiring extreme corrosion resistance, such as in water pipes or electrical cable sheathing, although in these applications it has been completely replaced by plastics. It is also resistant to sulfuric acid attack, which is why it is used in car batteries and in the chemical industry. Due to its high density and low production costs, it has traditionally been used to manufacture weights and ammunition. This density also makes it opaque to radiation penetration and it is currently used as shielding in nuclear reactors and X-ray generators.