Remolinos is a Zaragoza town located on the banks of the Ebro River and known for centuries for its underground rock salt mines, still in operation today.
These mines were already exploited in Roman times, although it was in the Middle Ages when they began to appear in royal documents. This exploitation intensified when the kings of the Crown of Aragon made use of the mine, being the only one with similar characteristics in the entire area and constituting a monopoly in Zaragoza. At this time, salt became one of the highest revenues for the Crown, since it was a fundamental product for preserving food and necessary for the survival of communities. Years later demarcations were created and the mines became private property.
Little by little, small companies or individuals ceded their properties to "Salinera Aragonesa", until, after several owners, the "Real" mine ended up being owned by the English company "ThePure Salt Limited", later "Purasal".
But how many mines are there really in Whirlpools?
In 1909, 59 mines were exploited, although only some such as La Real, El Garbanzo, El Ángel or El Balcón were exploited with a certain intensity. Even today you can see, at the foot of the Remolinos escarpment, numerous entrances to the small mines that were being worked until the beginning of the 20th century.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the salt production capacity increased, and the Remolinos mines agglomerated into a few companies. Later, in the middle of the 20th century, Ibérica de Sales came to control all the important concessions in the district. This same company today exploits the deposits of Remolinos.
And it does so in a single mine: Mª del Carmen, which was able to adapt to modern machinery thanks to its size.
This mine provides some 400,000 tons of salt per year, which are extracted, crushed and used for the winter viability of roads or for the production of animal feed.
In addition to the salt that is extracted directly from the mine, salt is also obtained by evaporation in the ponds that can be seen from the road that connects Remolinos with Alagón.
If you are wondering: “What is the method of salt extraction today?”
The exploitation continues to be similar to that of yesteryear: the stratum is practically horizontal and about five and a half meters thick, so the galleries do nothing more than follow that natural stratum.
The tillage is carried out by the method of chambers and pillars, which consists of gradually extracting material, leaving every certain distance a column of natural rock that serves as a support for the roof of the mine. In the case of the Mª del Carmen mine, it is a large square with a grid of chambers and pillars measuring twenty by twenty meters and almost 6 meters high. In addition, the level that is exploited in the mine has a power of five and a half meters, which is divided into three bodies: the lower body, with a thickness of about two meters and a richness of 93%; the five bad spans, with a salt concentration of 65%; and the tall body, about two and a half meters thick and with a salt content of between 90 and 93%.
The salt extraction process is simple: perforation of the vein, blasting from the perforations created and removal of the uprooted material.
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