The Son Creus mine is Mallorca’s most important vestige of metal mining activity.
There is evidence of mining activity in the island since ancient times, mostly to extract copper.
The Bunyola area has mines from the Roman and Byzantine periods, but here the purpose was to extract lead and silver from argentiferous galena (a mineral rich in lead with a small percentage of silver).
After many centuries of apparent abandonment, the primitive mining exploitations were enlarged during the second half of the 19th century but were abandoned definitively during the first half of the 20th century. It is known that zinc was also extracted during this period.
Interior of one of the galleries.
The origin of these metallic elements dates back to a stage of intense vulcanism experienced by the zone some 200 Ma ago. At that moment, what is today Mallorca formed part of a zone of salt lakes in an arid environment dotted with volcanoes. In this context of intense volcanic activity there developed hydrothermal seams formed from the precipitation of metallic elements like copper, silver and zinc in the fractures of the rock from water that circulated through them at high pressure and temperature.
Of all the mines opened in the area, most were abandoned in their initial stage. The most famous is Son Creus, also known as San Mateo. Having disappeared from the recent history of the village after being abandoned in the early years of the 20th century, the mine was not explored until many decades later, its speleological cartography being published in the early 1990s.
By then its galleries already displayed serious structural problems and the lower galleries were flooded, which made exploring them very dangerous. Today, rock falls prevent access to most of the mine, but it is possible to see the old dumps and some buildings and entrances on the surface.
Some of the exterior installations of the mine and its state of degradation, with flooded galleries and collapses.
