Closed Asturian coal shaft site at La Foz de Laviana, the easternmost vertical shaft in the Asturian mining basin, closed December 2018.
Pozo Carrio is a coal shaft located at La Foz, in the concejo of Laviana in Asturias, on the eastern edge of the Asturian coalfield — described as the most easterly vertical shaft in the Cuenca Minera asturiana. The area's coal deposits began to be exploited in the mid nineteenth century, receiving a decisive boost from the extension of the Carbonera road in 1872 and the Langreo railway in 1884. At the beginning of the twentieth century the mining concessions at Carrio passed through the hands of several entrepreneurs, including Joaquín Velasco and the Felgueroso brothers, before being acquired by the Sociedad Metalúrgica Duro Felguera in 1920 as part of the formation of the Grupo Laviana.
The vertical shaft was sunk in the 1940s and a riveted iron profile headframe erected in 1949. After Duro Felguera's integration into the state company HUNOSA in 1967, the original headframe was replaced and a new Koepe winding machine installed. The shaft reached a final depth of 628 metres and closed in December 2018, ending all coal extraction in Laviana.
The 1991 headframe has been listed in the Inventario del Patrimonio Cultural de Asturias.
Pozo Carrio is a coal shaft sited at La Foz on the eastern boundary between the concejos of Laviana and San Martín del Rey Aurelio in Asturias. It is regarded as the most easterly vertical shaft in the entire Asturian mining basin.
Coal exploitation in the Laviana area began in the middle of the nineteenth century. The district received significant impetus from the completion of two communication routes to the council capital: the Carbonera road in 1872 and the Langreo railway in 1884. By the early twentieth century a number of businessmen were working mining concessions in the Carrio area, among them Joaquín Velasco and the Felgueroso brothers. In 1920 Sociedad Metalúrgica Duro Felguera, as part of its expansion in the Nalón valley, acquired part of these concessions and proceeded to establish what became known in the following decade as the Grupo Laviana. This group came to include the vertical shafts of Carrio and Barredos and the mountain workings of Rimoria, on the border with San Martín del Rey Aurelio, with a combined workforce of around 700. Ore washing at Carrio was carried out using water drawn from the river Nalón. The concessions at Carrio had previously passed through Joaquín Velasco, who sold to Duro Felguera in 1926, though the company had already acquired the Felgueroso brothers' Laviana workings in 1919.
The literary record attests to early mining activity at Carrio: the Asturian novelist Armando Palacio Valdés, in his 1903 novel La aldea perdida, introduces characters arriving in Laviana to direct work at a recently opened Carrio mine.
The sinking of the vertical shaft at Carrio began in the 1940s. The shaft was completed in 1946 by Duro Felguera and entered production around 1950. In 1949 a riveted iron profile headframe was erected and the main pithead building completed, housing the machine room, boiler room, washroom, lamp room, first aid post, offices, and warehouses. This original headframe stood until 1991.
Pozo Carrio was incorporated into HUNOSA — the state-owned Hulleras del Norte Sociedad Anónima — when that company was established in July 1967 by decree, absorbing the principal Asturian coal companies including Duro Felguera. Under HUNOSA the shaft underwent modernisation works including the replacement of the 1946 iron headframe and the commissioning of a new Koepe two-cable winding machine, which required the construction of a dedicated building to house it. The new headframe, of more modern profile with double pulley floor and two box-beam bracing struts, was installed in 1991 and officially inaugurated in August of that year. It is the third headframe in the shaft's history. Carrio and the neighbouring Pozo Barredos were linked underground at the fourth level at a depth of +130.55 metres, below the bed of the river Nalón, and were connected on the surface by a metal suspension bridge, described as the largest surviving example of its type in Asturias.
At HUNOSA's takeover in 1967 the Barredos shaft was closed and its headframe dismantled, with the shaft converted to auxiliary ventilation return service. From that point Carrio became the principal extraction shaft for Grupo Laviana. The shaft reached a final depth of 628 metres.
Mining activity at Pozo Carrio ceased in December 2018, bringing to an end all coal extraction in the concejo of Laviana. The 1991 headframe has been listed in the Inventario del Patrimonio Cultural de Asturias. The site is described in sources as abandoned in the post-closure period.