Viva Las Cruces
Classic Plant & Machinery|April 2017

Coal is important for Spain’s economy, but it is not the country’s only indigenous raw material.

Viva Las Cruces

The Iberian pyrite belt, a mineral-rich 250km long and 40km wide area that stretches across the south-west of the peninsula from Seville in Andalusia and across the border past Huelva and into Portugal, contains valuable supplies of nickel, zinc, copper and gold.

Not long ago there were numerous surface and deep mines in both countries. Today, just a handful remains. In Portugal, the biggest is believed to be the Neves Corvo underground zinc/copper mine, and in our last two issues we reported on the re-opening of one the former Spanish Rio Tinto copper mines.

Not far from here is Cobre Las Cruces (CLC), one of the two largest surface copper mines in southern Spain. Located midway between the village of Minas de Rio Tinto and Seville, and close to the village of Gerena, the colourful Las Cruces deposit lies near the eastern edge of the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

Initially mined by Canadian firm Inmet Mining, this company was acquired by First Quantum Minerals (FQM) - another Canadian firm - in 2013. With nearly 1,000ha of land, FQM is mining part of a 40m-thick and very rich ore body that remained undetected for many years. Buried below 100 to 150m of marl, no other deposits have been found in the immediate area, and without modern detection techniques the deposit would probably have remained off the radar.

Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Classic Plant & Machinery.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Classic Plant & Machinery.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE CLASSIC PLANT & MACHINERYVer todo
HYMAC 580BT Restoration
Classic Plant & Machinery

HYMAC 580BT Restoration

Having started restoration work on his Hymac 580BT, Jeremy Rowland now looks at the next hurdles to get over as he begins to make progress

time-read
6 minutos  |
October 2017
The Bigger The Better
Classic Plant & Machinery

The Bigger The Better

The Ariño coal mine is not only one of largest operations in Spain today, but also relies on the services of some of the country’s largest earthmovers, writes Steven Vale 

time-read
4 minutos  |
October 2017
Men At Work!
Classic Plant & Machinery

Men At Work!

The MF Hanomag dozer ripping up the earth; the Hanomag company dates back to 1835, building steam engines from which it progressed to making many other types of machinery. The construction division was sold to Massey Fergusson in 1974 and was taken over by the IBH Group in 1980: after the collapse of IBH it became part of Komatsu 

time-read
3 minutos  |
October 2017
Into A New Era Ian Gibson Earthmoving Into A New Era
Classic Plant & Machinery

Into A New Era Ian Gibson Earthmoving Into A New Era

PETER LOVE visited his good mate Ian Gibson Plant Contractor to see his excellent new premises near Upminster, Essex, and his superbly presented working equipment

time-read
4 minutos  |
October 2017
GFX gets the works
Classic Plant & Machinery

GFX gets the works

Martyn Williams completes the story of his restoration of an Aveling Barford G series FX roller

time-read
2 minutos  |
March 2017
Viva Las Cruces
Classic Plant & Machinery

Viva Las Cruces

Coal is important for Spain’s economy, but it is not the country’s only indigenous raw material.

time-read
4 minutos  |
April 2017
This Was The Place To Be
Classic Plant & Machinery

This Was The Place To Be

If you were looking to buy some plant at auction, you couldn’t do better than check out the Euro Auction Sale, held near Selby on January 25, 26 and 27.

time-read
7 minutos  |
April 2017
Inching back to life
Classic Plant & Machinery

Inching back to life

Chris McCullough finds an extremely rare excavator restoration

time-read
3 minutos  |
February 2017
Eiger Replaces Andes
Classic Plant & Machinery

Eiger Replaces Andes

Tom Pattle, owner of P&S Marine, tells the tale of moving an Eiger to his yard to replace a faithful Andes 

time-read
2 minutos  |
February 2018
Crawlers Star!
Classic Plant & Machinery

Crawlers Star!

Although they are not seen in a plant background, enjoying classic and vintage crawlers, the backbone of the plant working scenario these days, is mostly seen at agricultural events like the National Crawler Championship. It was part of the National Ploughing Championships, which took place on Sunday October 15 near Bishops Lydeard, Somerset, and was well supported by CPM readers. The editor was there to see it happen

time-read
2 minutos  |
February 2018