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Mines i miners, Vall Fosca, Peramea, Sossís, Vilamitjana, Isona i Conca Dellà, Llimiana, Montsec de Meià, Corçà, Coll de Nargó i Malpàs (1833-1975) by Eva Perisé and Miquel Bailac is a research on the history of almost a century and a half of mining activity in these areas of the Pyrenees. These mining concessions (mainly coal and copper minerals, but also cobalt, uranium, or oil) were exploited as an economic and social survival activity and as a business, which was more in the speculation for the sale of the concessions than in mineral extraction.
The mining activity employed men—during Franco’s dictatorship, men could work in the mine instead of doing military service—children and women, although the female activity was despised: a woman earned half as much as a man. The social and economic impact of these exploitations was low, and from the moment of their stoppage, the mines were abandoned and forgotten.
