Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto, a river in southern Spain, in the province of Huelva, near whose sources are rich copper-mines; the annual output (copper and sulphur) reaches 1,400,000 tons; these minerals are exported from the port of Huelva (q.v.), 45 miles distant by rail, near the mouth of the river. These mines were worked by the Romans—their Tharsis. During the years of Moorish supremacy they were unused, but they have been worked again since the middle of the 16th century. They were bought in 1872 by the Rio Tinto (London-Bremen) Syndicate for £4,000,000. Some 10,500 persons are employed in the works, of whom unhappily something like 10 per cent. are usually ill by reason of the unhealthiness of the work. See W. R. Lawson, Spain of To-day (1890).