History of Bodovalle mine

Next to the Basque Country Mining Museum stands the Concha 2 mine, also called Bodovalle, the largest open-pit mining operation in the Basque Country, declared a monument in 2011, with amazing dimensions: a hole in the shape of an inverted cone with a 700 metre perimeter, 350 m diameter and 150 m depth, whose bottom is at 37 m below sea level.

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A bit of history

  • Along with the Basque Country Mining Museum, the Concha 2 mine, also known as Bodovalle, was opened. It was the largest open-pit mining operation in the Basque Country and was declared a monument in 2011. Its dimensions and production figures are astonishing: since it began operations in 1868 until 1983 (when it ceased operations) 14,000,000 cubic metres of material had been excavated, which produced 40 million tonnes of waste rock and 9 million more of carbonate.

  • In fact, in the 1960s the mining companies demolished the old town of Gallarta, including its homes and most representative buildings like the church, the fronton and the city hall to extract iron ore from the subsoil. This mining activity would lead to the Bodovalle mine and its subsequent underground galleries that would power the iron and steel industry in Bizkaia for years. This spectacular scar from the industrial period has profoundly transformed the landscape; it even swallowed the old neighbourhood of Gallarta, whose limits were within the mining operation, forcing more than 225 families to move.

  • From that intense and intensive activity by Agrupación Minera (Agruminsa), today there is a hole in the shape of an inverted cone with a 700 metre perimeter, 350 m diameter and 150 m depth, whose bottom is at 37 m below sea level. Inside, an underground mine contains over 50 km of excavated galleries.