Standing steel headframe of the second shaft of Mina La Camocha, the oldest surviving headframe at the site, protected under Gijón's heritage catalogue.
Pozo nº 2 was the second of the three main vertical shafts sunk at Mina La Camocha, the only coal mine in the concejo of Gijón, Asturias. Sinking began in July 1932 at a point approximately 100 metres from Pozo nº 1, with a diameter of 4.60 metres. The shaft was officially inaugurated in 1935 and reached a depth of 612 metres over nine working levels.
Its original steel lattice headframe carried a steam winding engine manufactured in 1922 by the German firm Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH). Following a mechanical failure in 1995, the headframe and winding machinery were replaced between 1995 and 1998 by a modern Koepe-pulley hoist installation with a skip, making Pozo nº 2 the principal extraction shaft. The replacement headframe is one of only two or three headframes of its hiperestatic tower type known in Spain.
The shaft and mine closed on 31 December 2007. The post-1998 headframe stands protected under integral designation in the Catálogo Urbanístico de Gijón, approved in 2010.
The second shaft at La Camocha was begun in July 1932, about 100 metres from Pozo nº 1, with a finished diameter of 4.60 metres. Unlike the first shaft, which had been sunk to establish the viability of the deposit, Pozo nº 2 was conceived as the principal operational shaft — it was sometimes informally referred to as the pozo maestro. It was officially inaugurated in 1935, in the same year that the first commercial coal was dispatched from La Camocha, and reached an eventual depth of 612 metres, giving nine working levels. From the shaft's platforms departed the principal transversales Norte and Sur, and from the crossing known as El Berrón ran the main headings Norte-Este and Norte-Oeste into the coal-bearing structure.
For its winding, the shaft was served by a steam winding engine built in 1922 by the German firm Gutehoffnungshütte, Aktienverein für Bergbau und Hüttenbetrieb (GHH), with two flat-cable reels. This engine had originally been manufactured for Hulleras de Turón for installation at Pozo Santa Bárbara, but its installation there was abandoned; it was purchased in 1932 by the Sociedad Anónima Felgueroso for the newly sinking Pozo nº 2. The steam engine was transferred to La Camocha along with the shaft's early timber headframe. A photograph from around 1938 shows both the timber headframe of Pozo nº 2 and the adjacent timber headframe of Pozo nº 1 standing side by side.
As the overall mine complex developed, Pozo nº 2 operated as the principal extraction shaft in conjunction with Pozo nº 3, which was commissioned in 1951 with a more modern steel headframe designed by Duro Felguera. In the decade following 1966, when the Sociedad Anónima Felgueroso merged with the Sociedad Minero Siderúrgica de Ponferrada (SMSP), the mine passed through successive ownership changes. In 1992 it was separated into a distinct company entity.
In 1995 a failure of the steam winding engine at Pozo nº 2 required a major intervention. Between 1995 and 1998 the original headframe and the GHH steam winding engine were both removed and replaced. The removed steam engine was subsequently placed on public display in front of the entrance to the Museo de la Minería at El Entrego. The replacement headframe installed over Pozo nº 2 is described as a sleek hiperestatic structure mounting two coplanar Koepe pulleys for friction drive. The following year the shaft was equipped with a skip, which replaced the previous cage-based extraction, transforming Pozo nº 2 into the mine's principal extraction shaft. This hiperestatic headframe type is among the rarest in Spain, with only two or three comparable examples known — the pozo Carrio in Laviana, Asturias, and a former headframe at Fuente Obejuna, Córdoba, belonging to ENCASUR.
The mine continued in operation under the 1998 configuration until closure on 31 December 2007, when a European Commission deadline for state-subsidised coal operations expired. The mine closed with 160 workers, entering judicial liquidation shortly afterwards. Post-closure, the insolvency administration sold demolition and scrap rights for most surface installations. Campaign by trade unions, residents' associations, and heritage professionals led to intervention: the Catálogo Urbanístico de Gijón, approved in July 2010, assigned integral protection to the headframe of Pozo nº 2 and the chimney. The headframe of Pozo nº 3 and its associated buildings also received protected status. The post-1998 headframe of Pozo nº 2 remains standing as one of the two surviving above-ground landmarks of Mina La Camocha.