Shortly before the Civil War, Fábrica de Mieres began digging its first large vertical mine, Barredo, which was finally inaugurated in the forties. Barredo mine was in fact an expansion of Mariana mountain mine, the mineral reserves of which were almost exhausted.
The mine’s headframe is one of the last to have a metal latticework structure, as very soon it was replaced by electric welding as the technique used for this type of construction. Another peculiarity of this headframe is that its tower is higher than the braces, as it was placed at a higher location that connected with Marianas and allowed the control of coal wagons from underneath. The lower brace area is the location of other facilities such as the powerhouse, which is connected to the headframe’s coplanar pulleys by means of extraction cables, as well as the electrical substation and the stack, now that the old electrical supplies workshop is gone. The stack is one of the more distinctive elements in Barredo, yet it was built earlier. It is connected to the old thermoelectric plant from 1916, which featured turbo-generators that serviced Fábrica de Mieres area mines when necessary.
On 22 December 1991, SOMA and Comisiones Obreras union members led by José Ángel Fernández Villa and Antonio González Hevia locked themselves down in the mine’s fourth floor to defend regional mining.
The mine was closed down in 1995. Some facilities are used nowadays for research and administration purposes. The facilites of the mine house the biggest geothermial and biomass project in Spain, transforming the water of the mine into electricity and air-conditioning.
Faustino Suárez Antuña
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