Río Tinto Mining Area

The road runs via Valverde del Camino (alt. 270m/886ft), at the beginning of the Río Tinto mining area, within which almost all vegetation has been killed, to Zalamea la Real (alt. 387m/1270ft), where we turn east into C 421. The chief places on this road are Minas de Río Tinto and Nerva, in the heart of the copper-mining area. The mines in this area are among the richest in the world, and were already being worked in Iberian and Roman times. The pyrites found here, lying close to the surface, have a sulfur content of 85% and between 0.5 and 2% of copper. The mines, which can be visited, were originally British-owned, and the towns have something of the character of British mining towns.