The Mining Basins (also known as the Asturian Mining Basins or the Cuencas Mineras in Spanish) is the name traditionally given to the historical territory located in the Central Coal Basin (Cuenca Hullera Central in Spanish) of the Principality of Asturias. It corresponds to one of the most heavily industrialized areas in Spain, especially linked to coal and ferrous metallurgy.
Although more than 20 Asturian municipalities are officially considered mining councils, in different categories, the municipalities that make up the two regions most directly linked to coal and which have had the greatest historical importance in economic, social and cultural matters are popularly referred to as mining councils, such as Caudal Valley (Mieres, Lena, Aller, Ribera de Arriba, Morcín and Riosa) and Nalón Valley (Langreo, San Martín del Rey Aurelio and Laviana).
Description
Location
The Asturian mining basins are located in the two central valleys that connect the Cantabrian mountains range to the central Asturian plateau, where Oviedo is located. These are the valleys of the Nalón river and Caudal river, as well as their tributaries (mainly the Aller, Candín and Samuño rivers). However, there are populations that have been economically and socially part of this territory, even though administratively they were already in other municipalities (mainly areas of Oviedo and Siero, where coal was also exploited). On the other hand, some municipalities in the Nalón valley region, such as Caso and Sobrescobio, maintained an economic activity not very closely related to industry and without large urban centers.
Industrialization
In the late 18th century, the properties of the hard coal from these valleys - studied by Jovellanos and others - started to be scientifically known. According to numerous testimonies, coal was used to heat homes in this area since the Middle Ages, and it was not until 1787 when Antonio Carreño y Cañedo reported a fire "that would not be extinguished" that his grandfather had witnessed in Carbayín (due, in fact, to the proximity of a subway coal seam).
Systematic exploitation would not arrive until the 19th century with various state laws and policies aimed at this end. Up to mid-century, mining was carried out in deposits at the surface of the earth or in small wells and shacks. In mid 1848, the blast furnace of the Asturian Mining Company in Ablaña was started up - to later give way to the Mieres Factory - and a few years later the Felguera Factory was founded, under which coal mining increased and the expansion of numerous secondary industries (such as chemical, metallurgical, machinery, food, ceramics, energy, etc.) took place. The exploitation of other deposits, such as mercury, was of lesser importance.
In 1854, the Langreo Railway was inaugurated, the third to start operations in the peninsula, which two years later connected the Nalón Basin to the Gijón port. Shortly after, more railway lines were built, also connecting the Caudal to the coast and the plateau, and the Nalón to Oviedo, at the same time that different mining railroads were built, crossing the valleys carrying ore, weaving a map of hundreds of kilometers of tracks. Throughout the 19th century, numerous mining companies were born, some of them with foreign capital. The most outstanding were Carbones Santa Ana, Carbones de Langreo y Siero, Duro Felguera, Hulleras de Turón or Felgueroso Hermanos...). During the First World War the increase of extracted tons in these two valleys was very significant due to the neutrality of Spain in the war, meaning most of the coal that was exploited in all of Spain. It was at this time that the vertical shafts began to deepen to the detriment of mountain mining, giving rise to the recognizable silhouette of the headframe in the landscape. Some of these mines, such as María Luisa or Candín, are more than 600 meters deep from the surface. The situation was sustained thanks to the protectionist policies of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic, the upturn due to the Second World War and Franco's autarchy, which made it the area of greatest mineral production in Spain. In parallel, the growth or consolidation of secondary industries, gaining importance in chemical and energy production. For more than a century, thousands of families from the rest of Spain settled in the Mining Basins, with special relevance to the waves of immigrants arriving in the 1940s and 1950s from Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia.