[1] The RTC was the builder and owner of the railroad line that connected the mines with the port of Huelva, where it built a commercial pier to facilitate the unloading and transport of the extracted material by sea.

[5] As a result of the metallurgical operations, there is evidence that the Romans would have left more than fifteen million tons of slag in the Riotinto area during a period characterized by new extraction techniques with furnaces and new tools — such as norias or the Archimedes' screw — because, when the phreatic level was exceeded, it was necessary to drain the numerous subsoil waters.

Thus, on February 14, 1873, after an unsuccessful auction, the mines were acquired through direct sale by an international consortium created, among others, by three powerful families, the Mathesons, the Rothschilds and the Goldschimidt — owner of the Deutsche National Bank of Bremen.

[13] At its peak, Riotinto became a small English colony thanks to the mine, a "Gibraltar sui generis",[14] as the local writer and poet Juan Cobos Wilkins called it.

The numerous workshops and facilities built by the RTC that employed more than seven hundred workers, such as the railway station, changed the appearance of the city and contrasted with the rise of a new bourgeoisie of both Spaniards and foreigners who were linked to the company.

Proof of this are the Reina Victoria Neighborhood, as a garden city that housed part of its employees; the construction of the Casa Colón, which ended up becoming headquarters for company offices, the disappeared Hospital Inglés, or the huge Rio Tinto Pier located on the Odiel river.

[15] During the early years, the railroad was built in order to provide a cheap and fast outlet for the ore. By 1875,[16] there was already a railway line linking the mine itself with the nearest exit to the sea: the port of Huelva.

Thus, most of the wealth obtained from mining — it is estimated, for instance, to be half of the world's pyrite — departed quickly across the Atlantic to England, leaving a region in apparent progress but in reality, degraded by a fierce industrialization.

[17] The growth of mining activities in Riotinto led the company to build several industrial facilities since the late 19th century, dedicated to the processing of ore.

Around 1907, the RTC signed an energy agreement with the Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya (SMMP) to supply about 19,000 tons of coal annually, relying on the railway network of the MZA.

However, from 1896, the RTC promoted the candidates of the Conservative Party for the districts of Huelva and Valverde del Camino with the idea that these, once elected deputies, would support the company in Madrid.

For instance, in 1890 it actively supported along with Tharsis a "mining" candidacy to the Provincial Deputation formed by José María Parejo Bécquer and Vicente Ferrer Ramírez Cruzado.

During the restoration, speculation was rife about the role that Rio Tinto may have had both in the ministerial appointment of Manuel de Burgos y Mazo and in the dismissal of Ángel Urzaiz — the latter, as Minister of Finance, had attempted to introduce some tariff levies on the export of iron pyrite.

[31] During this period, the company implemented a reform plan that included purchasing machinery for a greater automation of the operations and the construction of new industrial plants to treat the minerals.

the unrestricted submarine warfare conducted by Germany severely disrupted the export of pyrite to the major North American market,[32] that until then was very dependent on the mineral coming from Spain.

As a result of its close ties with high political spheres, the RTC was engaged in systematic tax fraud against the Spanish Treasury during its first decades of existence.

[35] The chairman of the board of directors, Auckland Geddes, tried to reach a reserved agreement with the then minister, José Calvo Sotelo, but the latter rejected this possibility and preferred to take the matter through the courts.

A tough legal battle ensued, resulting in a first sentence to pay 750,000 pounds sterling in taxes based on the profits generated by its activities in Spain in 1928.

[43] Faced with the prevailing situation, the company adopted a strategy of minimizing its activities at Riotinto,[44] also imposing a restriction on expenses and dividend distribution among shareholders.

From the 1920s, the Rio Tinto Company Limited began a policy of diversification of its investments and activities, acquiring several mines in British colonies in Africa.

[50] As the demonstrators, more than 12,000 in number, were huddled in the narrow adjacent streets and square with greater joy and confidence, the cavalry was ordered to withdraw from the place it occupied and immediately afterward a closed, immense discharge — with projectiles sweeping that human mass — sent the crowd in disorderly retreat, leaving many corpses and injured on the ground and ran through the streets shouting cries of terror and violent rage.

The unconscious soldiery, the stupid machine that obeys and kills, the soldier who directs the muzzle of the rifle to the town from where he left and to where he will return, enjoyed the sight of gunpowder and blood.

Diario la Coalición Republicana, 1888.On February 4, 1888, shortly after the arrival of the new general manager Mr. William Rich, a demonstration of miners and farmers protesting against the fumes of the ''teleras'' and the poor working conditions was harshly repressed by the army.

The teleras (open-air calcination of low copper ore imposed in Spain by Gaspar Remisa decades before) were used in the area since the beginning of the century, but with the arrival of the English their use increased considerably and it is estimated that around 500 tons per year were released into the air.

This had a certain national resonance, and the population in the province was divided between humistas ("pro-smoke") who defended their use as a symbol of progress and antihumistas ("anti-smoke") who condemned them for their extremely high polluting effect (in fact, the fumes from the teleras flooded the entire region and were sometimes visible in the mountains of Seville and even Ayamonte and Portugal).

As a result, a Resolution was published on July 22, 1879, which, even though it imposed small indemnities for the damage caused to the crops in the area, did not raise concerns about people's health.

But the government, influenced by the Company and conservative newspapers such as La Provincia (which had carried out an almost crusade in favor of mining) systematically repealed all municipal laws against the teleras.

Starting on February 2, a strike began in the Cuenca Minera that provoked the Civil Governor to station two companies of the General Pavía Regiment in Huelva, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ulpiano Sánchez.

When leaving the building the Pavia forces charge for fifteen minutes with shots and bayonets against the demonstrators resulting in a number of fatalities and wounded not officially known — ranging between 14 and 45 in the press and depending on whether it was the conservative or liberal media and today is estimated much wider.

The large English-speaking population settled in the area — mostly workers and managers of the Rio Tinto Company — allowed part of their cultural, social and sporting traditions to be implanted in the mining basin and even in the rest of the country: The company had its headquarters at number 3 Lombard Street in London, with a representative office at number 8, Calle de Ventura de la Vega in Madrid.