Palencia mining basin

[3] Coal mining completely changed the economy and demography of the region, becoming its main economic means and facilitating the installation of infrastructures for its transport, such as La Robla Railroad and the Barruelo–Quintanilla de las Torres railway branch.

It was the country's main source of energy during the autarky of the 1950s, but from the 1960s onwards it began a period of recession when it was replaced by other hydrocarbons, and received its final blow with Spain's entry into the European Economic Community in 1986, which led to the closure of all unprofitable installations.

The Carboniferous system, which extends for about 55 km in a SW-NE direction through the north of the province of Palencia, is characterized by the presence of series of sediments with important facies variations.

[13] According to a study published in the specialized journal Geogaceta in 2006, coals from the Guardo-La Pernía area reach the anthracite grade depending on their volatile matter content.

The appearance of the steam engine, the driving force of the industrial revolution that began in the second half of the 18th century, increased the world's consumption of fossil fuels, especially coal.

[20] The versatile Ricardo Becerro de Bengoa attributes in his writings the discovery of coal in the Montaña Palentina to the parish priest of Salcedillo, Ciriaco del Río, in 1838.

[22] After verifying that the mineral burned and kept the heat, he ascertained the presence of greater quantities, contacting the mining company Collantes of Reinosa to begin the exploitation of the deposit.

[25] This system made the final price of the product considerably more expensive, so the construction of the Barruelo-Quintanilla de las Torres railway branch was undertaken, which linked with the Palencia-Santander railroad and was put into operation in December 1863.

[30] The other great center of the Palencia anthracite, Velilla del Río Carrión, would not experience its definitive hatching until a few years later, although the presence of several layers in its vicinity had already been confirmed.

After the study of possible variants, the final project, which linked the towns of La Robla in León and Balmaseda in Biscay, the work of the prestigious mining engineer from Guipuzcoa, Mariano Zuaznavar, was presented to the Cortes on 26 November 1889.

The great demand caused by the cessation of exports from large producers such as the United Kingdom, added to the improvement in local infrastructures, especially thanks to La Robla railroad, which ran through practically the entire basin, allowed the sector to experience a boom for which it was not prepared, so prices skyrocketed.

In the summer of 1934, in the towns of Barruelo and Guardo, there were rallies of socialist militants with thousands of attendees from the provinces of Palencia, León and Santander, which constituted a great demonstration of strength.

On 5 October, the miners of Barruelo took up arms and took control of the town, resulting in the death of a lieutenant colonel and two members of the Civil Guard, as well as the director of the Colegio Marista,[48] Plácido Fábrega Juliá, known as Brother Bernardo and beatified by the Catholic Church in 2007.

[54] The repression of the miners and the suppression of their unions meant that the Civil War did not have great repercussions in the area, which quickly fell into the hands of the rebel side.

[56] The autarky established by Franco's regime, forced by the international isolation to which it was subjected in its early years, resorted to coal as the main source of energy, so the basin was greatly favored, experiencing significant progress during the 1950s.

But in 1967, alleging the failure of the State to comply with the agreements reached, the company declared the total crisis of the facilities and requested the Labor Delegation to close them and dismiss all its employees.

In Guardo, the miners blocked the accesses by road and the entrance to the railroad at the Velilla thermal power plant, leading to confrontations with the anti-riot troops sent to the area.

[67] Despite being considered essential by the businessmen for the survival of the sector, the open-pit mines aroused from the beginning the mistrust of part of the population, who, through anti-cutting coordinators, opposed the projects, arguing ecological reasons.

[69] In October 1998, Hullas de Barruelo became part of Unión Minera del Norte (UMINSA), owned by the Victorino Alonso group, which controlled most of the mining operations in the north of the country.

In Velilla del Río Carrión, in 2007, work ceased in "El Abuelo", concentrating the activity in the Las Cuevas shaft, located next to the border with the province of León.

[4] The future of the activity was uncertain when the European Union proposed to maintain public aid to the sector until 2014, on the condition that all the loss-making farms, including all those in Asturias, León and Palencia,[75] would close that year.

The fear of the disappearance of the activity in the Palencia basin led the Junta of Castile and León to ally with the employers and trade unions seeking the support of the Government to try to rectify this proposal of the European Commission.

[78] The miners abandoned the blockade 27 days later, on 29 September, when the European Commission authorized the Spanish government to subsidize electricity companies that use indigenous coal for their production.

The most serious accident in its history occurred in the famous Pozo Calero de Barruelo, when on 21 April 1941, 18 miners died and another 19 were injured due to a firedamp explosion.

According to the archives of the mining section of the Territorial Service of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of the Junta of Castile and León, between 1956 and 1997 alone, 116 miners died in this area as a result of occupational accidents.

One of the greatest experts on the subject, the Palencia physician Silvano Izquierdo, defined this disease as "a pulmonary fibrosis caused by the prolonged inhalation of siliceous dust".

In 2006, the president of UMINSA, Victorino Alonso, presented a proposal to the town council of Guardo demanding the open-pit exploitation of 500 ha within the municipality, committing himself to hire all the local youth.

[103] The local Anti-Cutting Platform mobilized to warn of its distrust of the proposal and the full council unanimously decided to reject the offer,[104] in addition to declaring protected all public forest in the municipality to prevent future clearing.

The first substantial modification it produced in its social environment was the transformation of a society dedicated in a high percentage to agriculture and animal husbandry, which started to massively adopt mining as a means of subsistence.

[111] Another phenomenon that took place, as opposed to the previous one, and profusely studied in literary circles, was that of workers' associations, which began in 1900, when the syndicate La Unión was created in Barruelo de Santullán.

Southern view of La Peña (foothills of the Sierra del Brezo ) from Respenda de la Peña , with Peña Redonda in the center. At its feet can be seen the towns of Las Heras and Santibáñez de la Peña . The southern slope of this mountain range was populated by mining operations throughout the 20th century.
Physical map of the northern part of the province of Palencia, showing the distribution of the main subway mining operations, of which in 2010 only two remained in operation, both in Velilla del Río Carrión , in the western part.
Fragment of black coal ore, which is distributed in the northeastern part of the Montaña Palentina .
Anthracite is located in the NW part of the basin.
Detail of the geological map of the province of Palencia made by Casiano de Prado in 1856. Note that the areas corresponding to the mining basin correspond to the Carboniferous period (dark brown on the map).
The bridge over the Pisuerga river in Cervera . The Pisuerga is usually considered, unofficially, the boundary between the Guardo-Cervera subarea of anthracite production and the Barruelo subarea and its black coal exploitations. For its part, the town of Cervera was for much of the 20th century the nerve center of a mining area that included the nearby exploitations of Dehesa de Montejo to the south and La Pernía to the north, reaching its population peak in 1991, with 2,953 inhabitants.
Asturian mining was a pioneer in coal mining in Spain, and has also been subject to a severe recession since the late 20th century. In the picture, inclined plane at the "Mariana" mine in Mieres , c. 1895.
Casiano de Prado
A locomotive of La Robla railroad derailed in the vicinity of the Guardo station, in an image from the 1940s. The construction of this narrow-gauge railway line opened up a distribution possibility for coal from Palencia that had a decisive influence on the sector.
Mariano Zuaznavar is a key figure in the history of mining in Palencia. The engineer from Guipuzcoa was employed from 1878 onwards as facultative director of the Orbó mines, where he designed a masterpiece of mining engineering of the time: the Orbó Underground Canal. [ 34 ] Later, in 1889, he was the promoter and designer of La Robla railroad, which was the definitive boost to the mining industry in Palencia.
Sketch of the Bárbara shaft headframe (first master shaft of Palencia's mining industry) near Barruelo, [ 36 ] imported from a Belgian mine. It was made of iron and was 28 m high. This plan was published in the Revista Minera in 1883, which was when the structure, later dismantled, was installed.
A group of workers during the drilling of the Pozo Calero , which was carried out between 1910 and 1911. El Calero, the most emblematic shaft in the coal basin, stood out for its large ashlar headframe, a facility that can still be visited today. This shaft also has the worst accident record in the basin, and was the scene of the worst accident in its history, on 21 April 1941, when 18 miners died and 19 were injured due to a firedamp explosion. [ 23 ]
A column of Civil Guards with miners captured in the nearby mountains crosses Brañosera towards Barruelo de Santullán , on 8 October 1934.
A group of workers during the construction of the thermal power plant in 1962. This facility was built to take advantage of the coal production of the basin, of which it was the main customer until the mines were closed. It consumed 222,169 ton of coal during its first year of operation. [ 58 ]
Image of Barruelo de Santullán in August 2010. In the foreground can be seen the industrial and washing facilities of Hullera Vasco Leonesa , and in the background the large dumps of the coal mines.
Guardo FEVE station with coal hoppers for the thermal power plant . During the hectic mobilizations at the end of the 1980s, the miners cut the railway traffic as a protest measure against the closure of the mines.
Image of the Antracitas de Besande facilities in the municipality of Velilla del Río Carrión. This exploitation was involved in the bankruptcy of the Bergel Group in 1990, and since then it has been abandoned.
Velilla del Río Carrión , one of the main centers of the Palencia anthracite industry, and which since 2005 has housed the only two subway mines remaining in the region: Carbones San Isidro y María, owned by Fernando García Brugos , [ 73 ] and the Las Cuevas pit, which belonged to UMINSA , the main national company in the sector, and whose president was Victorino Alonso .
Two 1500 locomotives of La Robla Railroad with a coal convoy leaving a trench in the snow, next to Mataporquera , in 1998. The disappearance of coal transport to the steel industry in Bilbao led to the closure of the line in 1991. In 1995, it was reopened thanks to public investments and since then it has maintained an important activity of coal transport to different thermal power stations. [ 84 ]
Monument to the Miner of Guardo . It is a 4 m high bronze figure erected on a concrete pedestal in which mining scenes are represented. The set, which is completed by a pond, was inaugurated in July 1975, and the sculpture is the work of Jacinto Higueras Cátedra . [ 89 ] It is a tribute to the figure of the miner and is considered the most emblematic monument of the town. [ 90 ]
Evolución demo minera palencia
General view of the Velilla thermal power plant , with Grupo II (completed in 1984) already built. Iberdrola 's facility was built to take advantage of the area's coal production, and has historically been its main customer. Despite the beginning of the use of imported coal, in 2008, the coal quota that UMINSA (owner of the Palencia and Leon basin mines) had been allocated by the plant was still 450,000 tons per year, [ 88 ] still higher than the 415,962 tons produced by the entire basin in 2007. [ 83 ]
Exterior view of the Mining Museum, the exhibition area of the Mining Interpretation Center of Barruelo de Santullán . The complex is completed with a visitable mine and a cultural center, and was inaugurated in 1999 to show the activity in the mines of Barruelo since its discovery in 1838 until its final closure in 2005. The museum area is located in the building formerly occupied by the National Schools, and has 600 m 2 of exhibition space.