RIO TINTO: HISTORY, MOUTH, ROUTE, CHARACTERISTICS, FLORA - GEOGRAPHY - 2024

The Tinto river is located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain, with its waters bathing 100 km until its mouth in the province of Huelva, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia. Formerly it was called Luxia, while today it is called "Tinto" for the natural color of its water, a fact for which it is recognized throughout the world.

It represents one of the oldest mining settlements of which there is a record. Traces have been found that show the exploitation and smelting of copper dating back to 3000 BC. This primitive settlement was transformed over the centuries into the largest open pit mine in Europe.

In the fauna of the Tinto there are extremophilic bacteria that do not require sun or oxygen for their subsistence. Photo: David Perez

History

First ages

In the Bronze Age between the 12th and 9th centuries BC. C. the first exploitations are evident in the archaeological site La Corta del Lago, located in the municipality of Minas de Riotinto.

Various historians indicate that in the Iron Age the Tartessos (settlers of the current provinces of Huelva, Cádiz and Seville) traded minerals with the Phoenicians and with the Greeks.

Roman technology

After the expulsion of the Carthaginians from Hispania, the Romans took possession of the Riotinto Mines and with their ingenuity they introduced technological improvements that began the period of real exploitation of the mineral resources of the area. The Romans inaugurated the use of underground galleries, the drainage through hydraulic wheels known as norias and the use of slave labor.

Exploitation, disuse and transfers

With the fall of the Roman Empire, the Riotinto Mines were in disuse until 1556, when King Felipe II tried unsuccessfully to exploit them again, seeking the necessary capital to finance his European wars.

In the reign of Philip V in 1725 the mines were rented to a Swedish citizen for exploitation for a period of 30 years. In 1783, at the end of the concession, they returned to the Spanish government. During the Spanish War of Independence in 1810 they were closed again, remaining inactive for mineral extraction until 1828, when they were rented again, this time to a Catalan citizen who ran them for 21 years.

Takeover of the Riotinto Company Limited

Around 1869, the Spanish government studied the possibility of selling the Riotinto Mines due to the impossibility of assuming the maintenance costs. He announced the decision to sell it in May of the same year.

On February 14, 1873, the sale of Las Minas de Riotinto was signed for 93 million pesetas to a British company founded to manage the mines, called Riotinto Company Limited.

Copper, iron, gold and manganese were extracted in the Riotinto Mines, reaching their peak in 1930. In 1986, the exploitation of copper was stopped and all extraction activities progressively ceased until its technical closure in 1996.

The Riotinto Company Limited generated employment for approximately 17,000 workers, so they founded an English soccer team in the town of Riotinto, in 1873, to have fun on weekends.

Cradle of Spanish football

In 1889 the first Spanish team was founded thanks to the influence of its English predecessor in Huelva: the Huelva Recreation Club, which would later become the Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, a historic event that is a source of pride for all the natives of that region.

Source and mouth

The Tinto river is born in the mountains of Huelva, specifically in the Sierra de Padre Caro of the municipality of Nerva, province of Huelva, in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia.

It empties into the estuary formed at its confluence with the Odiel river, called the Huelva estuary, reaching the Gulf of Cádiz on the southern border of the city of Huelva, capital of the province of the same name.

Travel

From its source in the municipality of Nerva in the north of the province of Huelva, to its mouth in Huelva, the capital of the province, the Tinto river flows through the municipality of Minas de Río Tinto, then passing to El Campillo. From there to Zalamea la Real and Berrocal, following a general direction towards the south through the municipalities Valverde del Camino, Paterna del Campo, Niebla and La Palma del Condado.

It crosses Villarrasa, Bonares, Trigueros, Lucena del Puerto, San Juan del Puerto, Moguer and Palos de la Frontera, to finally find its end south of the city of Huelva.

- Rio Tinto mining park

Due to the importance of mining activities for the development of the region, the Tinto River cannot be separated from the mines and for this reason the Río Tinto Mining Park was founded. In it, its visitors can immerse themselves in the history of this important economic activity through guided tours of a complex designed for the enjoyment of the whole family.

Peña del Hierro is a mine with Roman galleries that can be visited with the company of guides. In the tour they narrate interesting and curious facts about the exploitation in these constructions. The journey allows you to visit 200 meters from the gallery to a sinkhole that offers a privileged view of the waters of the Tinto river.

In the Mining Museum, with a total of 1800 m ² divided into 15 rooms, the history of the mine is narrated in detail with the exhibition of pieces from archeology, metallurgy, the railway industry and mining.

With Casa 21, the directors of the Riotinto Company Limited settled in a replica of an English neighborhood. In this recreational activities were developed that brought to Spanish lands a large part of their English customs and ways of life, including golf courses, soccer practice and the organization of boyscouts.

In the complex you can visit a Victorian house that is preserved with the comforts available at the time so that its visitors relive the experience of the managers.

The Cerro Colorado Mine Viewpoint is located north towards Nerva. Provides a panoramic view of the open-air farm filled with shades of red, ocher, green, violet, gray and yellow that seem from another world.

Through the Mining Railway, visitors to the park have the opportunity to relive the golden age of steam locomotives on a 12 km tour that visits an old railway machine graveyard, passing through restored tracks, bridges and tunnels with stops at viewpoints to photograph the landscape.

- Other sites of interest

Along the riverbed of the Tinto river there are other places of great historical and cultural value that are worth visiting.

Silver way

Road located in the El Campillo municipality in the province of Huelva. It is consolidated as a road thanks to the Romans, but its use as a trade route to obtain tin in the northeast of the peninsula dates back many years.

Monuments proliferate around it, making it a jewel of history and art. In the Middle Ages it became part of the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela.

Roman aqueduct of Italica

A brilliant work of Roman architecture built in the 1st century BC. C. that served to carry water from Tejada to the city of Itálica. This section can be seen in the Colina Verde neighborhood of the Paterna del Campo municipality, in the province of Huelva.

Tejada was located between the territory currently occupied by the municipality Escacena del Campo, province of Huelva and Paterna (Valencian Community), while Itálica is located in Santiponce, municipality of the province of Seville (Community of Andalusia).

P

Located north of the town of Niebla, it was built on the Tinto river. It is one of the bridges that are best preserved as evidence of Roman rule in the Iberian Peninsula. It was built to link the town with the city of Itálica.

Soto Dolmen

It is a funerary monument dating from the Copper Age, located in the municipality of Trigueros in the province of Huelva. With a length of 21 meters, it consists of a chamber and a wedge-shaped corridor that opens on the inside.

It is considered one of the largest funerary constructions on the peninsula, so on June 3, 1931 it was declared a National Monument for its administration and protection.

Relics of conquest

The municipalities of Moguer and Palos de la Frontera in the province of Huelva were the scene of Columbus's departure on his travels to America. In these cities is located the Convent of Santa Clara, from where the navigator made his oath of adventure and exploration before God and the Spanish crown. There is also the port from where it sailed.

Tributaries

In its 100 km of route, the Tinto river receives its waters from part of the Sierra de Huelva. Among the most important rivers are Nicoba, Casa de Valverde, Jarrama, Corumbel, Domingo Rubio and Candón.

characteristics

The Tinto River is a watercourse with unique characteristics that derive from the geological nature of its channel.

Color

The characteristic reddish color that it has originates from the iron and copper deposits that are found along its channel. The presence of acidophilic bacteria in its waters oxidizes the sulfides for their subsistence, releasing protons that increase the pH of the river, making it an acid channel.

Attractive scientist

Its acidic pH, together with a large presence of heavy metals and little oxygenation, are a peculiar mixture that generates a unique ecosystem on the planet, which is very attractive to scientists.

This extreme habitat led to the evolution of microorganisms that do not require oxygen or sun for their subsistence, since they adapted to feed on minerals. These evolutionarily gifted include endemic bacteria, fungi, and algae.

NASA has been especially interested in the study of these extremophilic organisms -which subsist in extreme conditions-, since from data released in their explorations they presume that if they find liquid water on Mars and on satellites like Europa, the life that can survive in these environments they would be similar to that found in the Rio Tinto.

Harmless waters

Despite its intimidating color, the acidity of its pH and the unusual shapes that it digs into its bed, the waters of the Tinto River are not dangerous to touch. There are sections of the river where the banks are suitable for approaching and the waters can be touched without being harmful. Its consumption is contraindicated due to the presence of heavy metals.

Contamination

Many specialists consider that the Tinto River has natural levels of contamination due to the presence of diluted heavy metals in its waters, as a result of weathering.

To this factor is added the size caused by human activities on the riverbanks. On the one hand, there is the discharge of industrial water from dye factories without treatment in the municipality of Nerva. Those responsible want their violation to go unnoticed by being confused with the color of the river, reducing costs without thinking about the fragility of the chemical balance of this unique ecosystem.

Another source of contamination is urban sewage that is returned to the river without treatment, due to the absence of plants. This has been reported in the municipalities of Nerva, El Campillo and Minas de Río Tinto.

Finally, mining exploitation disproportionately increases the acidity of the river, putting its chemical balance and downstream ecosystems at risk.

Flora

The vegetation in the riverbed and the banks bathed by its waters is scarce. This is due to the acidity of the water and does not mean that it disappears completely, but mostly they develop beyond the banks of the riverbed.

Typical species in the region are heather de las minas, cork oak, white asparagus, holm oak, arbutus, eucalyptus, torvisco, common alder, white heather, arbutus, agrostis, pine, spring flower, juniper, scorpion, mountain asparagus, asparagus wild wildflower, bushmeat, heather, curly rockrose, sticky rockrose, beggar's grass, crown, broom, horsetail, seaweed, and Extremophilic fungi.

Fauna

The stars of the Tinto River are extremophilic bacteria that do not require sun or oxygen for their subsistence. Around the river, unlike its course, a large number of species develop, including hoopoe, stork, golden eagle, chameleons, mongoose, scorpion, dormouse, rabbit, wild boar, medium horseshoe bat, Iberian lynx and mouflon.

References

1. Riotinto, 5,000 years of mining history, Eldiario.es digital newspaper, January 29, 2018, taken from eldiario.es.
2. Minas de Riotinto, in Huelva, the cradle of Spanish football (1873). Diario AS, December 7, 2017, taken from as.com.
3. Nerva Huelva, Junta de Andalucía, taken from juntadeandalucia.es.
4. Pollution threatens to destroy the Tinto river as we know it, an article in the Sevilla Actualidad newspaper published on March 14, 2017, taken from sevillaactualidad.com.
5. Río Tinto, website of the Río Tinto Foundation, taken from fundacionriotinto.es.