Seeing the blood-red waters of Rio Tinto (in Huelva province, Spain), the giant open pits, and the detritus of what are known to be the oldest mines in the world so rich in mineral wealth that according to myth they were the fabled mines of King Solomon, is a disquieting experience. Last weekend, we took the Mining Railway tour that run through the excavations, the man-made landscape, and the heavily deforested hills that constituted Rio Tinto Mines. As we were waiting to begin, the railway carriages were abuzz with excitement -- everybody was a child again out on a train ride. But the mood very quickly changed as we rumbled along and the views became more and more surreal. We were seeing what was left by 150 years of extraction of natural resources at its grandest scale, and it was boggling our minds.
On all sides were walls and mountains of rocks stripped bare, from afar looking like giant roots or drapes with streaks of various colours. It was like looking around a natural amphitheater of collosal proportions. The removal of layers of soil and rock, in the search for iron ore, copper, silver and many other mineral ores, had coloured the entire landscape in hues of pink, brown, yellow, red, and grey.
As we moved along, we saw hundreds of thousands of tons of smelting slag -- material which was dumped in molten iron from melting wagons coming from the copper smelter. The slag that solidified inside the wagons took their form, and when dumped, appeared like tortoise shells. I had the impression that they seemed more like helmets of dead soldiers on the battleground.
We then saw an old roman road which was used by the Romans to transport silver coins from Rio Tinto to Sevilla. In ancient times, Phoenician merchants were drawn to the shores of the Iberian Peninsula because of tales of its mineral wealth. It was also control of the mines which led to a succession of Greek, Carthaginian, and Roman invasions.
A bit farther on were yellow hills, the colour produced by unburned sulphur. The iron sulphites here, with 53% content, are the most sulphurous in the world.
On one side were massive blocks of slag that had dropped from the main heap. Mixed in were rusted metal, junk, and an old car body thrown in for good measure. The effect could not have been more bizzare.
While our eyes were riveted to this eerie landscape, we were told by the guide not to miss the lunar landscape on the left.
We also saw a track with halted ore carriages. This was the track that connected the 16 floors of tunnel of Corta Atalaya (the name of this gigantic pit) to the industrial facilities on the surface. It took the carriages 1.5 hours to cover the entire distance.
A bit farther on was the former railway machinery: the locomotives, the electric engines, and wagons and cranes all rusted and abandoned. It was a scene straight out of a dystopian film where a sudden catastrophic event had taken place and in an instant, snatched away or exterminated humans and all other living beings. The image was so strong that I could almost hear the machines still creaking on their own, left running by their human masters.
We then came upon tons of crushed grey and purple iron pyrites. The pyrites were oxidized in open air and water in order to dissolve the copper content into acid water.
The copper-rich water was then channelled to the cementation plant. In the channels made of stone and brick, this water was mixed with scrap iron which created a copper crust that was later refined in the furnaces.
Farther on that side we saw another scene out of a dystopian film -- built onto the side of the hill was the old ore washing plant and ore sorter which looked like dwelling places of extra-terrestrial aliens, superhumans, or whatever one's imagination can conjure.
Gradually we left behind the industrial area, the landscape which was transformed dramatically and unrecognizably by a century and a half of mining and metallurgical activity. We saw more of the river whose mineral-rich waters have turned the rocks gold-coloured.
In places the water was so dark it seemed out of this world. It looked so primitive it could only have come from or belonged to the primordial soup of elements from which the earth was formed. Which is exactly why this ecosystem is being studied by NASA and the Spanish Astrobiology Center to find out similarities between Mars and Rio Tinto. The Rio Tinto river has a metal content of 6 grams per liter and is toxic. It has a very low ph which is why no ordinary animals live in it but scientists have found a colony of micro organisms living on metals. These micro organisms oxidize iron very quickly in order to get energy in the absence of oxygen. Understanding the extremophiles that live in this environment is useful for exploring life on the subsurface of Mars.
In this natural part of the river, we were shaken back to reality as we saw eucalyptus, oaks, and a proliferation of bushes on the hillsides. We were told that a variety of wild animals are still to be found here. This was a stark contrast to the dead environment we left a few moments ago.
We reached the end of our tour and while waiting for the engine to be turned around and attached again to the 100-year old wooden carriages that in the old times were used by the workers to get from the hamlets to the mines, we were allowed to go down to the river banks. And for a few moments, we contemplated the wonders of one of the most unique environments in the world which date back four million years.
We returned to the carriages and as the train slowly rumbled its way back to the station, everyone was quiet, the mood subdued. We had plenty to think about, and in my case, I was sure that the images would stay with me.
