The mining-forest set of
the Cerro del Toro, Motril, Granada, is constituted by remains of mining labors of the centuries XIX-XX, inside a small woodland that surrounds
the exploitations.
It is located in the western foots of the Sierra del Jaral, north of
Motril, and next to its urban area. It is a promontory of practically
conical form, with very sloped hillsides around all its contour, except
to the East, where a great rocky wall develops on the Barranco de las
Provincias. Beside the hill in strict sense, stands out a projection
placed to the southeast forming a small elongated plateau. Though its
profile stands out inside the mountainous horizon that borders Motril's
fertile plain, its altitude, 318 m above sea level, places it below other
close summits. It is surrounded by several courses of water ending in
the same city, emphasizing the Barranco de las Provincias in the eastern
part.
At present the environment is enormously transformed. There stand out
specially the effects of the plastic greenhouses, which spread on the
whole low part and which have provoked important lands fellings. It
begins to feel also the Motril urban development push. This landscape
contrasts with the great surface of forest of replanted pines in the
mountainous zone in the northern part.
In the environment there are been identified archaeological remains from
Calcolitic Age and a set of ceramics showing the occupation of the
zone between the VIIIth-XIIIth centuries associated to mining labors. In
the same way, this deposit has been identified in the documentary
appointments of the 11th century, in Al-Idrisi's text. Nevertheless,
there are not direct evidences of those mining labors, due to the
intensity of the exploitation realized in the second half of the 20th
century when were extracted around 250.000 ton. of mineral.
The mines of blende of the Cerro del Toro might constitue the first evidence of the use of the zinc in metallurgy in Europe, in a epoch as early as the IXth and Xth centuries.
The first written reference
of the exploitation is that of Al-Razi (888-955), coinciding with the
chronology of the scant remains found in the summit.
The exploited mineral has been above all zinc and in minor measure
galene and fluorite. Other minority identified compounds are pyrite,
tetraedrite, bornite, calcopyrite, smithsonite and cerusite.
With the next creation of the Geo-mineral and Forestal Park of the Cerro
del Toro, will be allowed a better analysis of the archaeological
preserved remains.
