Geological and Mining Heritage as a Driver of Development: The NE Sector of the Linares-La Carolina District (Southeastern Spain)

Conservation, rehabilitation and post-valuation of the facilities of old mining districts is considered a valid strategy to revitalize these areas. In this study, the northeastern sector of the Linares-La Carolina mining district was analyzed, integrating geological information with mining to assess...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Mendoza, Rosendo, Rey, Javier, Martínez, Julián, Hidalgo, M. Carmen
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Jaén
Repositorio:RUJA. Repositorio Institucional de la Producción Científica de la Universidad de Jaén
OAI Identifier:oai:ruja.ujaen.es:10953/2655
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12020076
https://hdl.handle.net/10953/2655
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:geological and mining heritage
underground-overground patrimonial integration
La Carolina
Spain
Descripción
Sumario:Conservation, rehabilitation and post-valuation of the facilities of old mining districts is considered a valid strategy to revitalize these areas. In this study, the northeastern sector of the Linares-La Carolina mining district was analyzed, integrating geological information with mining to assess its value. The characteristics of the three most emblematic veins (consisting of galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, quartz, ankerite and calcite) were analyzed, namely El Guindo, Federico and El Sinapismo. In this study, each mining exploitation was evaluated according to their geological context. Currently, old mining operations can only be visited from drainage galleries or from some exploration galleries. However, some of the old mining shafts could be adapted for visitation. On the surface, the remains of the most important extraction shafts and part of the associated facilities are still visible. One can also visit old tailings dumps with a high contents of heavy metals associated with ore concentration plants. The contaminating potential of these wastes is being monitored thanks to control piezometers and sensors installed at different depths within the tailings ponds, which assist in controlling evolution in the latter years. Different localities of special interest from geological, mining and mineralogical points of view are indicated. Therefore, the guided tour described in this work is attractive for tourism and educational purposes.