Mines of Tharsis. Roman, French and British enterprise in Spain

Notes:

Scholarly account about the extraction of pyritic ore - for copper and sulphur - at the Tharsis Mines in South West Spain. Deals with extraction in the Roman period but the focus is on the period from the mid 19th century when the mines were reopened first by French interests in the 1850s and soon taken over by Scottish and English interests. The main focus is on the Tharsis Sulphur & Copper Co Ltd which the latter interests formed in 1866 to acquire the mines. Deals with the original French company, Compagnie des Mines de Cuivre d'Huelva, formed 1855, which extracted copper only; at much greater length with the Tharsis Company and its extraction of both copper and sulphur well into the 20th century; the large nearby and competitor mines owned by the Rio Tinto Co Ltd of the UK; the British interests behind the Tharsis Co, notably C Tennant & Sons of Glasgow and its leader, Sir Charles Tennant; the developing market in Britain for sulphur, notably the chemical industry; the political environment in Spain in which the business operated; notably the mining communities in Spain which grew up around the mines and the conditions in which the miners and communities existed. Written with the co-operation of the firm which did 'not associate themselves with all the views and conclusions I [the author] have expressed'