December 2022
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279 Reads
Les Ferreres range (Gavà, Barcelona, Catalonia) has seen several cultures and empires pass through the millennia. Since the Neolithic, its entrails have been mined in search of the men they hide. In the Neolithic period, variscite was the mineral that moved the miners to open galleries and trenches. Later, those who knew the secret of iron production opened up the earth looking for minerals such as goethite, iron ochres (limonite) or hematite. Behind them, the Roman Empire continued the extraction of precious minerals. And in the Middle Ages and the modern age, the iron of these regions continued to be appreciated. Until the sixties of the 20th century, the mines worked when the price of the ore allowed it. But in addition to this rich mining heritage, this mountain range and its mines and outcrops have provided numerous mineral species, some appreciated by mineralogists from all over the world... They have also expanded our mineralogical heritage. In this book you are holding in your hands you will find a collection of mining history and a description of this exceptional mineralogy. It is the result of the research carried out by the Grup Mineralògic Català in recent years, with the collaboration of Geociències Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC), the Museu de Ciències NAturals de Barcelona and the support of the Universitat de Barcelona. Sharing experiences with the people of the region, historical research, field work and scientific curiosity have been the engines that have pushed us to carry out this work.