Caravia mining area, Asturias, Spaini

Regional Level Types
Caravia mining area	Mining Area
Asturias	Autonomous Community
Spain	Country

The Caravia mining area comprises an important group of mines operated by several companies such as Fluoruros, Minersa, Fluoritas Asturianas S. A., Minas de Argüelles, etc. besides a number of small private workings that, attracted by the fluorite business in the 1960s, greatly spread out through this district.

The direction of the mineralization is NW-SE and the main veins, that were mined sometimes by several companies, are from East to West: the San Lino vein with its well-known open pit of the same name, owned by Fluoruros, and with the Amalita Mine owned by Minersa, which was also called the Melfonso or Foncaravia (that last name was given by the company of the Argüelles family). On this mine were located the following workings: Aurora Norte, Melfonso shaft and Aurora (owned by Fluoruros S. A.), as well as Amalita, Mª de las Nieves, Foncaravia shaft and Argüelles shaft, owned by Minas de Argüelles S.A.

Almost parallel but about 1 km west, in the locality of Carrales, is located the FASA vein, with the following mines: Jaimina, active mine (Minersa), Fasa Norte, El Vallín and La Cristalera, owned by Fluoritas Asturianas S. A. Parallel to the Sueve fault is one of the most productive veins, Obdulia, with such important workings as the Emilio mine, now active, (Minersa), Eduardo, Valnegro aka Pie de Potro, Obdulia shaft, Llamarga and Margolles, operated in the past by Fluoruros S. A. Between the last two ones there are a group of minor lodes containing small mines and quarries such as San José, El Coronel and El “fumu” (Fluoruros S. A.) or the Llamas Quarry itself.

The first mining in this district took place in the area then called the Melfonso Quarry, in the locality of Prado, the district capital, in 1922. Over time other workings began in the surroundings of this first quarry as La Cristalera, La Esborreguera or La Ordiera, all of these were opencast. Later, in the foothills of Sueve, in the spot known as “Riega del Beyu”, close to “Casa Pique”, Sr Celestino Llaneza and Sr Eduardo Ottlet de Wolf (a Belgian) operated mines on surface outcrops installing an ore washing machine next to the track leading to that area. From 1937 to 1941 many mining claims were awarded in this area, and there appeared on the scene a company that in the future was going to be the basis of Minersa, 'La Sociedad Bilbaína de Minerales y Metales' (SOMIMET). This company acquired all the iron concessions belonging to the Sr Jose Antonio Zuberrigoitia's family, and named them all the Sueve Mines.

Also by this time the Jaimina concession had been demarcated by the Argüelles family and the Mª del Carmen concession by the retired artillery captain Sr Manuel Menéndez Manjón. Later, both of them were owned by Fluoritas Asturias S. A., (FASA). Outstanding specimens were collected in Jaimina mine, as well from El Vallín Quarry, popularly known as “La Coria”. Fluoruros S. A. was the main company in this area of Asturias with regards to mining and volume of extracted ore. Its best known mines are: Obdulia, Eduardo, Valnegro (aka Pie de Potro), San Lino, Aurora, Pozo Melfonso (from this the Aurora vein was mined at depth), Aurora Norte, El Coronel , Cerro Harinedo, etc. which made this company – as well the mines in La Collada – became the main Spanish producers of fluorspar and one of the most important companies in the world at this time. Nowadays, the only two active mines are Jaimina and Emilio, both of them owned by Minersa, which have provided fine specimens for the collector over the last thirty years.

Throughout the Caravia mining area there is a distinctive feature when compared with the Berbes mining area: the prevalence in the Fluorite crystals of more complex habits (tetrahexahedrons) as well as combinations of cube and rhombododecahedron (beve1ed crystals) and also combinations of these three habits that provides nice associations with the rest of the minerals in the specimens. Colors may vary from total lack of color, common in Emilio Mine, Aurora Norte Quarry or Llamas Mine, through a huge range of blue and mauve, finally reaching deep violet to nearly black sometimes found in Jaimina Mine.

The most common associations in this area usually include, apart from the fluorite itself, quartz, baryte, calcite, dolomite and to a lesser extent, pyrite, marcasite, chalcopyrite, galena, cinnabar, sphalerite, stibnite, copper carbonates, goethite, tetrahedrite. As a rule, most of sulfides appear as inclusions inside the Fluorite crystals, along with organic compounds, probably hydrocarbons, found in the Fluorite and in the double terminated quartz crystals from the intermediate area of the Emilio Mine or from the San Lino open pit.

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References