Preserved steel headframe of the third shaft of Mina La Camocha, a coal mine of major industrial and labour history significance near Gijón.
Pozo nº 3 was the third and final of the main vertical shafts sunk at Mina La Camocha, the only coal mine in the concejo of Gijón, Asturias. La Camocha was developed by the Felgueroso brothers from sondeo work begun in 1901, with productive sinking of Pozo nº 1 from 1930 and first commercial coal output in 1935. Pozo nº 3 was sunk between 1949 and 1951, reaching a depth of 523 metres with a 36-metre steel headframe designed and built by Duro Felguera.
It served as the principal extraction shaft during the railway-connected era from 1949 to 1986 and remained operational until the mine's final closure on 31 December 2007. After post-closure demolition of most surface installations, the headframe of Pozo nº 3 and its associated winding house, electrical substation, and lampistería were retained under integral protection in the Catálogo Urbanístico de Gijón, approved in 2010.
The origins of Mina La Camocha lie in a prospecting campaign begun in 1901 by the brothers Víctor, Constante, and Secundino Felgueroso, trading as Sociedad Regular Colectiva Felgueroso Hermanos. Believing that the coal seams worked at their Langreo mines extended northwards towards the coast of Gijón, they initiated a programme of sondeos (boreholes) in the parishes of San Martín de Huerces and Vega. Early borings encountered severe groundwater problems, and in January 1915 a sondeo at Caldones struck a large pocket of gas, producing an uncontrolled surface blaze known locally as El Mechero de Caldones that burned for several days. Sondeo work continued through the 1920s. On 11 July 1921 the family business was reformed as the Sociedad Anónima Felgueroso, with registered offices in Madrid.
After seven sondeos and two failed shafts, productive sinking of Pozo nº 1 began on 27 June 1930. The shaft reached the first coal seam at 180 metres depth. A steel headframe of 24 metres was erected over Pozo nº 1, extended to 30 metres in December 1934. Sinking of Pozo nº 2 began in July 1932 at a point about 100 metres from Pozo nº 1, with a diameter of 4.60 metres and an ultimate depth of 612 metres reaching nine working levels. The first commercial coal from La Camocha was sold to the Panadería Zarracina of Gijón on 30 September and 1 October 1935.
During the 1940s Sociedad Anónima Felgueroso constructed a major new washing plant and invested in underground infrastructure, confirming the long-term viability of the deposit. The company also planned and built a standard-gauge (ancho ibérico) railway branch to connect La Camocha with the RENFE network at the station of Veriña. Provisional operation of the railway began on 9 June 1949, and the official inauguration, attended by Francisco Franco, took place on 26 August 1949, on which occasion the new washing plant was also inaugurated.
Sinking of Pozo nº 3 commenced in 1949 and the headframe erection began in August of that year. The new shaft was brought into operation on 31 May 1951. Duro Felguera designed and constructed the headframe, an isostatic steel structure with strut braces and a pulley platform built from welded box-section beams with a four-upright guide tower of braced steel sections. The headframe stands 36 metres in height and weighs 129,424 kilograms; the pulleys are 4.5 metres in diameter. The shaft itself is 5.80 metres in diameter and reaches a depth of 523 metres. The extraction winding engine was built in 1947 by the British firm Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Export Co. Ltd., powered by a Ward-Leonard direct-current motor rated at 2,700 horsepower. The winding drums were cylindrical, 4.42 metres in diameter and 2.59 metres wide, with capacity for 650 metres of cable. The cages served a single deck with capacity for 40 persons or four mineral wagons totalling 4,800 kilograms.
Following the opening of the railway, La Camocha expanded rapidly. When rail connection was established in 1949 the mine employed over a thousand workers and produced 200,000 tonnes of washed coal per year; a decade later the workforce had grown to 1,600 and annual output to 400,000 tonnes. In 1957 the workers of La Camocha organised what is regarded as the first Comisión Obrera in Spain, a nine-day strike that defied Francoist labour controls and is considered a foundational moment in the history of the Comisiones Obreras trade union movement.
In 1966, the Sociedad Anónima Felgueroso was merged with the Sociedad Minero Siderúrgica de Ponferrada (SMSP), and from 1 April 1967 the mine operated directly under SMSP management. La Camocha was never incorporated into the state company HUNOSA. In 1992 SMSP separated the mine into a distinct entity. Meanwhile, Pozo nº 1 had been closed and its headframe dismantled in 1953 and dispatched to the Corral Negro mine at Ariño, Teruel. The railway continued in operation until 1 August 1986, when the last documented service ran; the formation was subsequently converted to a greenway.
In 1995 a failure of the steam winding engine at Pozo nº 2 led to the replacement between 1995 and 1998 of both that shaft's headframe and its winding installation by a skip and belt conveyor system. As a result, Pozo nº 2 became the principal extraction shaft and Pozo nº 3 reverted to auxiliary status. The mine closed definitively on 31 December 2007, when the European Commission's deadline for subsidised coal operations expired and an extraordinary shareholders' meeting voted to liquidate the company, which had debts with the Seguridad Social and had been subject to judicial administration. At closure the mine employed 160 workers, who were either offered early retirement or redeployed. In 2008 the Museo del Ferrocarril de Asturias extracted the company archive from the site.
Post-closure demolition of most surface structures was ordered by the insolvency administration, which sold demolition and scrap rights. However, the catálogo urbanístico of Gijón, approved in July 2010, assigned integral protection to a group of structures associated with Pozo nº 3: the headframe, the winding house and its machinery, the electrical substation, the washhouse and lampistería, and the offices. The headframe of Pozo nº 2 and the chimney also received protected status. The headframe of Pozo nº 3 remains standing as the principal surviving landmark of Mina La Camocha.