9. HOW MINES WORK
Mining is the set of techniques that make it possible to exploit minerals. Depending on the material to be extracted, and depending on the topography of the land, certain techniques will be used. The extraction of the ore can be done on the surface, in an open-pit mine, or by drilling the subsoil, in an underground mine.
Underground mines, such as the potash mines in Súria, have a system of shafts and galleries that drill the subsoil and make it possible to reach the ore veins. The first thing that is built in an underground mine is the access shaft, a vertical drilling that will allow reaching the desired depth. From this access shaft, several horizontal galleries can be opened to reach the deposits of the mineral product.
MINING CONCESSIONS
Ownership of the land on the surface is private, but everything inside it, be it minerals or other substances, belongs to the state and the state can grant it to a third party to exploit it.
To exploit these minerals legally, you need a mining concession granted by the state based on a request to exploit a specific mineral, in a delimited area. This mining exploitation unit is what we call the mine, and each of them has an administrative concession.
To obtain the concession, it is necessary to register the desired land with the State Mining Service, and then the extension on the land is delimited with stakes. As a final step, you will have to pay an annual fee depending on the surface area and the type of material that is extracted.
SHAFTS, HEADFRAMES, GALLERIES AND WAGONNETTES
To excavate a mine shaft, you first need to build a headframe, a vertical structure, which allows you to extract the earth from the drilling. The headframe will also serve as a box for the elevator, the skips, which allow access to and from the interior of the mine, as well as allowing the ore to be extracted to the surface. For safety, each mine must have a minimum of two shafts, one for entry and exit, and the other for ventilation.
Once the shaft reached the desired depth, horizontal tunnels were opened that drilled into the subsoil in search of ore. So, the ore was being extracted, the gallery was getting longer and the extraction point was getting further and further away from the exit shaft. To transport the ore inside the mine, tracks were built with wagonnettes that allowed the ore to be transported along the underground galleries.
THE TRANSPORT
Once the potash was extracted from the mine, it had to be transported to be able to distribute and sell it. That is why it was necessary to create infrastructures that would allow the transport of wholesale goods, such as the railway or the aerial cable. With the construction of the aerial cable line, the potash extracted from the Cardona mines could be brought to Súria, and with the railway, the potash, both from Cardona and Súria, could be distributed outside the region.
These infrastructures were built between 1918 and 1930, and during the years they were in operation they became essential elements for the operation of the potash mines. Over time, these elements would also become part of the landscape and the collective imagination of mining in Bages.
THE RAILWAY
The construction of the railway line that connects Súria with Manresa-Alta station, and with the existing railway network, was started by the Solvay company in 1918. Six years later and with the line already finished, the infrastructure would be transferred to Compañía General de Ferrocarriles Catalanes S.A. in exchange for shares, and with the aim of the service being put into operation immediately.
The Súria train was a metric-gauge line, without electrification, and in its first years of existence, it not only served the transport of goods but also offered the service of transporting passengers. In addition to taking the potash away from the mine, the railway also allowed coal and other products that the mine needed for its proper operation to arrive.