The Mines of Tharsis by Checkland, S. G.;

Short description:

Originally published in 1967, this book discusses the attempt in ancient and modern times to exploit one of the great mineral areas of Europe. The mines at Tharsis played an important part in the formation of the United Alkali Company. At the time of its publication, no comparable study of a major mining enterprise existed. 

Long description:

Originally published in 1967, this book discusses the attempt in ancient and modern times to exploit one of the great mineral areas of Europe. The extraordinary Roman workings at Tharsis in south-west Spain were reopened in Queen Victoria’s reign, with the copper and sulphur they contained being much sought after. The mines at Tharsis played an important part in the formation of the United Alkali Company and in the discovery of the revolutionary MacArthur-Forrest gold extraction process, so critical for South Africa. At the time of its publication, no comparable study of a major mining enterprise existed. The author successfully synthesised the scientific and technical factors with the economic, social and political ones. The continuous struggle for both mining efficiency and markets is discussed, as are the difficulties caused by the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War. The book will appeal to historians, students of business history and marketing, applied science and technology as well as those interested in the problems of foreign enterprise in what was (at the time) a relatively undeveloped country.

Original Review of The Mines of Tharsis:

‘Professor Checkland has presented a well-documented history of a great mining company.’ Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, November 1967.

Table of Contents:

1.The Story in Outline 2. The Problems Set by Nature Part 1: Tartessians, Romans and Frenchmen 3. The Mystery of Tartessos 4. The Roman Mining Colony 5. The Thousand Year Abandonment: The Cornish Cooper Monopoly 6. Ernest Deligny: The Rediscoverer Rejected 7. The French Company and its Struggles, 1855-1880 Part 2: Prosperity Under Victoria and Edward 8. Sulphur and the New European Chemical Complex 9. Sir Charles Tennant, the High Victorian Entrepreneur 10. The British Company, 1866-1870: Formation and Programme 11. The Great Rival: Rio Tinto, 1873 12. Tharsis and the World Economy: Copper and Sulphur 14. Tharsis as an Enterprise, 1870-1900 15. Life in the Mining Villages, 1866-1914 16. The Search for New Mines: The Turn Inward, 1895-1914 Part 3: A Pyrites Mine in an Unsettled World 17. Production and the Fight for Markets, 1914-1936 18. Labour and Politics: Dictatorship and the Second World Republic 19. Civil War 20. The Years of Frustration, 1939-1963 21. Revolution in the Sulphur Market: The Prospects for Pyrites 22. Mining Within the Spanish National Economy 23. The End of an Era: The Fourth Reorganization 24. Three Themes.