Mining and metallurgical activities are so important in the history of the areas of Sulcis and Iglesiente that one cannot be divided from the other and are considered just one of the many economic fields of the area .
The Bronze Age (1800 – 900 B.C. and the Iron Age (900 B.C.) were will known and identifiable in the objects and utensils of the Nauraghic people, even though a first and consistent exploitation of the mining resources of the Island were firstly carried out by the Phoenicians, a middle-eastern population, who, around the year 1000B.C., used Sardinia as a support point on the course towards the Iberian peninsula and , later, when they discovered the resources hidden underground, began to mine these and export lead and silver.
The Carthaginians also exploited the rich mining resources but we must wait for the Roman dominion for a massive exploitation of these resources. During this period important centres developed some of which took the names from the metals mined in that area, for example Ferraria near Sinnai or Plumbea ( Sant’Antioco today), and especially Metalla (most probably situated near Antioco and Arbus) proved to be a natural mint.
In the year 466 A.D. the Germanic population of the Vandals ended the Roman dominion on the Island and later in the Mediterranean basin. The new invaders exploited only the coastal areas and the fertile agricultural areas of Sardinia but, even though they levied heavy taxes on those areas they controlled, they tolerated the religion of the people they found there and they gave pieces of land to those who possessed nothing behind the promise that these lands would be cultivated by the new “owners”.
Such a lack of interest of the central uneven and mountainous regions leads to think that the Vandals did not exploit any of the mining resources offered. One arrives at the same conclusion when looking at the Byzantine dominion of the Island. However it seems improbable that such a rich resources be ignored for more that five hundred years.
During the independent Judiciary period, Cagliari formed an alliance with the Pisans who were the promoters of the first great mining “season”. They created “Villa di Chiesa” ( Iglesias of today) where they built a mint, leaving the mining activity to the local people and single owners of the resource areas or to those companies already working in these places.
The Pisans were present in the foundry when they operated the revenue activities. The metal extracted was silver, which was separated from the mineral Galen which is very rich in silver, and this was used to coin money and, in a greater part, it was sent to foreign markets. Sardinia was second only to Boemia then in Europe, showing a potentiality which, unfortunately, was never exploited during the years to follow.
The Spanish dominion, from XV century, slacked the entrepreneurial sense of their predecessors, and even though there were many privileges for anyone asking for mining concessions, the spirit of free initiative which co-existed previously was now totally lacking. The Spanish has monopolized every extractive activity for the mint requirements, and much was done to re-launch this sector of the economy around the first half of 1600’s: But in a moment when things looked as if they were about to change , the Plague and the famine that followed gave a mighty blow to life on the Island and it was a fatal blow to the mining activities.
When the Savoy arrived in Sardinia they gave new stimuli to this field and even though the first results were modest, they are to be considered as important hotbeds which re-lit the souls of those who believed in the possibilities of the mining activity in Sardinia. During this important prologue an imposing foundry was built near Villacidro, new mining galleries were opened at Montevecchio and Monteponi later to become the mining “capitals” of Sardinia. At the same time new technology gave its help in the digs towards better extractive methods and re-elaboration of the minerals.
However the technological progress alone would not be enough to rehabilitate a sector which, in the previous centuries, had been drastically sunk. In 1831 Francesco Mameli was nominated General Director of the Mines of the Royal Patrimony. He established a series of interventions aimed at contrasting the causes which blocked the desired re-launching of the mining industry.
The important points of his report underlined the lack of professional miners and also the non-existence of an adequate set of rules operating in this industrial field. The orders which followed gave a new lease of life to the entrepreneurs, the final push arrived after the “Perfect Fusion” (see: The History) which extended the new legislative rules of the Piedmonte Mines (1840) to all of Sardinia, after which investors from all over Europe started to show interest in the Island.
The most important concessions were those of Montevecchio (Guspini) and Monteponi (Iglesias) alongside which grew new roads, homes, civil and industrial structures: In those years the first Sardinian railway was laid and the port of Carloforte became a fundamental hub for transporting minerals. In 1871 the Right Hon. Quintino Sella declared that it was necessary to open and professional school to prepare people for this sector and he indicated Iglesias as the site for this school, and he made it become the seat of the Mining Headquarters which up to then had always been in Cagliari.
The area of Sulcis and Iglesiente was never so important as it was in those years. What had been an arid land started to transform very quickly following technological progress and the dynamics of the financial markets , and in a short space of time from those house of branches and reeds came forth advanced urban centres.
Along with the highs and the lows the mining activity surpassed the economical crisis that hit Europe towards the end of the XX century, the First World War and the financial crisis of Wall Street in 1929 along with the years of the “Great Depression”. All of this thanks also to the strong determination of the miners who wanted their work to continue whatever the sacrifice requested of them – even pay reductions. The coming of the Fascist rule and the autarky policy of the Regime gave place to an extraordinary increase of the production in this field.
The plants were modernised and more houses and recreational centre were built. In 1938 the apex was reached with the foundation of a real city Carbonia. Coal from Carbonia in fact substituted that of foreign countries which no longer arrived in Italy after its invasion of Ethiopia. The declaration of war and Italy’s entry in 1940 extinguished whatsoever dream of glory and all the activities were converted for war purposes.
Once again depression like that which preceded the First World War shrouded the lives of the miners. The Sardinian Mining line started its unhappy decline. During the post-war years many of the veins so well exploited before were exhausted and an evermore petrol-dependent society brought the mining sector to an irreversible crisis.
The mint activity has not been closed completely but what is operating today seems like the ghost of a glorious past. The importance and the uniqueness of the phenomenon of the mining event in the Island has made the UNESCO decree it as the first geo-mineral park of the World.