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Corta Atalaya
Corta Atalaya is the largest open-pit mine in Europe[1] and was at one time the largest in the world.[citation needed] It is located within the city limits of Minas de Riotinto in the province of Huelva, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.[2] It is roughly elliptical in shape, 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) long, 900 metres (3,000 ft) wide, and 350 metres (1,150 ft) deep.[1][2][3] It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Rio Tinto Group.[citation needed] At its peak it employed 2,000 workers mining copper; it was actively mined until 1992.[4] Since at least 1994 it has been flooded up to the 16th ring.[3]
This open-pit mine in the western part of the Masa San Dionisio[4] was begun in 1907 after major subsidence in some of the higher-altitude parts of the area two years earlier,[3][5] caused by the combustion of pyrites in the earlier subterranean mines.[citation needed] The mines were nationalized in 1954[2] but later sold back to a private company.[when?][citation needed] As of October 2009, the current owner, EMED Tartessus, says they will have the mine operating again before the end of 2013.[6]
- ^ a b (in Spanish) Emed Mining gestiona reapertura al turismo de Corta Atalaya en mina Riotinto, eleconomista.es, 2007-12-09. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ a b c (in Spanish) Minas de Riotinto - Huelva, part of Guía de la Faja Pirítica Ibérica: Historia y Naturaleza (2006) on the official site of the Autonomous Andalusian Government. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ a b c (in Spanish) "Minas de Rio Tinto. 5.000 Años de Minería",Bocamina, Number 4 (1994). Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ a b Beatriz Santacruz, La evolución de las minas de Riotinto, El Mundo Magazine, Issue 101, 2001-09-02. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
- ^ Charles E. Harvey (1981). The Rio Tinto Company: an economic history of a leading international mining concern, 1873–1954. Alison Hodge Publishers. p. 89. ISBN 0-906720-03-6. According to this source, the pit began in 1909, not 1907.
- ^ EMED Mining Quarterly Report[permanent dead link], 2009-10-26. Retrieved 2010-01-07.
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