Overview of Minas de Corrales

Minas de Corrales is a villa, located in the department of Rivera.

Its name derives from the mines of various minerals found in the area and the stone corrals created in the nineteenth century, used to hold livestock.

The mines were exploited from 1879 to 1939. In 1908 he began underground mining. However, according to the few documents preserved from that era, and during the years 1911 to 1914 the mining company worked deficit. The gold mineralization is found in quartz veins very variable thickness: up to 30 meters in the Mina San Gregorio, up to 10 meters in Zapucay. Sometimes the gold is accompanied by pyrite, chalcopyrite or galena. The country rock consists of granitic material; in Zapucay of cloriticos shales.

In 2000 the mining activity is being restarted in the department, especially for gold for export.

Minas de Corrales also has the best infrastructure of the inland towns of Rivera. People all over the country and other countries working in the gold mines of Corrales, including people Tranqueras and Vichadero going to seek work in Corrales.

A 12 kilometers of Minas de Corrales are the ruins of the hydroelectric dam Cuñapirú, it was the first in the Americas, and supplying electrical power for mining. There processing plant ore mines San Gregorio and Santa Ernestina was also found. Transporting the mines to the plant was carried out by a aerocarril, very modern for its time. These ruins are now a major tourist spot within the department of Rivera.

See more about the history of Minas de Corrales

See also information on Minas y Rivera.