[1] In the case of Spain, it came to control numerous mines and its activity extended throughout the provinces of Cordoba, Jaen, Ciudad Real, Murcia, and Barcelona.

SMMP was founded in Paris by means of an agreement signed between the House of Rothschild and the French company Sociedad Hullera y Metalúrgica de Belmez (CHMB), the latter already present in the Peñarroya-Belmez-Espiel coal basin.

Initially, it was agreed that CHMB would continue with its exploitation of the coal basins while SMMP would engage in lead mining and metallurgy.

[6] That same year the company also acquired eight mines scattered in the area of El Terrible and Santa Elisa, one of which would turn out to be of extraordinary mineral wealth.

By that time SMMP was also exploiting mining deposits in the provinces of Badajoz (Azuaga, Fuente del Arco) and Ciudad Real (Puertollano, San Quintín).

A reflection of this is the fact that the company came to have its own railway network, which connected its main facilities in the provinces of Cordoba and Ciudad Real.

After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, Peñarroya's main facilities were briefly occupied by the trade unions and workers' militias, who made themselves strong in the Guadiato area.

This situation was short-lived, as a few months later the rebel army occupied the mining basin and the company regained control of the facilities.

[18] Throughout its existence, SMMP's activities spread throughout Europe, Africa and South America, giving rise to a multinational company.

In Greece it exploited the famous Laurion mines through a subsidiary, the Compagnie française du Laurium,[20] from the 19th century until its closure in 1977.

Later the French company would operate through a subsidiary, Pertrusola, which throughout the 1960s and 1970s exploited various deposits throughout the peninsula: the mines of Raibl (Udine), Salafossa (Piave), Crotona (Sicily) and Vado Ligure (Liguria).

[22] In Africa, SMMP had an intense geological research activity in several countries,[23] especially in Morocco, where several deposits, smelters, washing plants, etc.

[25] Previously, during the post-war years, "Peñarroya" had ceded to Empresa Nacional Calvo Sotelo (ENCASO) its oil shale exploitations in the Puertollano area.

In 1961, the SMMP transferred the ownership of the coal basins of Peñarroya-Belmez and Puertollano to the Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI),[26] after having announced its intention to cease its activities in this sector.

[26] In 1968 all the Spanish businesses of "Peñarroya" adopted their own entity and were renamed "Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya-España" (SMMP-E), having from then on its headquarters in Madrid and having a separate organization.

It also had a fleet of broad gauge locomotives to operate on the branches that connected its different deposits and industrial exploitations with the Iberian-gauge railway network.