page_title: Aroa mines
section_title: English mining operation
hierarchical_section_title: Aroa mines / English mining operation
caption_attribution_description: Español: El sonido ronco del tren alarmo a los habitantes del pequeño poblado de El Consejo, aquella mañana del domingo 8 de octubre de 1893. Los campesinos salían asombrados de los cañaverales de la Hacienda Santa Teresa y algunos, después de persignarse, creyeron que se trataba de un jinete del Apocalipsis. Aquella pesada máquina relucía bajo la estela de humo que surcaba el suelo Aragüeño. Venía de atravesar 65 túneles, 29 puentes y 47 acueductos. Días después, el 28 de octubre llegaba a La Victoria y de allí fue a San Mateo y Cagua, para encontrarse con la ruta que venía de Valencia. No era el primer ferrocarril venezolano, pero si el más importante. La historia ferroviaria nacional se remonta a los albores de la República, cuando en 1835 tienden los primeros rieles de Tucacas-Minas de Aroa. El Consejo apenas tenía 1462 casas y 9.475 habitantes. Allí comenzaba el claro amanecer aragüeño. La estación era sobria, fiel exponente de la arquitectura ferroviaria alemana, taquilla de boletos, oficina del telegrafista, depósitos de carga y descarga, oficina del administrador y las habitaciones del jefe de la estación. Cinco mil personas trabajaron simultáneamente, perforando las entrañas de la tierra para hacer los túneles Removieron tres millones y medio de metros cúbicos de tierra, abrieron 86 túneles y construyeron 182 puentes y viaductos con un peso total de seis mil toneladas de hierro. Tendieron los rieles y un día echaron a andar 17 locomotoras, 32 vagones de pasajeros, 181 de carga, 30 para transportar ganado, 30 trollys y 6 velocípedos de vía. El tren transportaba más de 200 mil pasajeros al año y la carga que en 1894 era 14 mil toneladas se había cuadruplicado en 1919, produciendo ingresos de 4 millones de bolívares y egresos que no llegaban a 2 millones. El capital inicial fue de 79 millones de bolívares, íntegramente aportados por la compañía alemana. En una oportunidad abordó el tren la venerable maestra Pilar Pelgrón, descendiente de próceres y biznieta del maestro del Libertador. El pasaje se pagaba con monedas de oro. De Caracas salía el tren a las 8 de la mañana y a las 11:30 llegaba al Consejo. A las 3:00 de la tarde estaba en Valencia Entre las 11:47 y 12:15 el tren se detenía en la estación de la Victoria. La restauración de la estación de El Consejo le corresponde a Alberto Vollmer Herrera, biznieto por la rama paterna de don Gustavo Vollmer. Ordenó tender 12 kilómetros de vías férreas dentro de la centenaria Hacienda Santa Teresa, donde actualmente se pone en funcionamiento cada fin de semana, cuando llegan cientos de turistas a comulgar con el pasado.
context_page_description: The Aroa mines were copper mines in the state of Yaracuy, Venezuela.
  Mining started in 1632, and for some time the mines were owned by the family of Simón Bolívar.
  Bolívar leased the mines to an English company to help finance the wars of independence, and they continued to be operated by English companies, using Cornish and local miners, until 1936. Today the mines are closed and partially flooded. Their remains are preserved by the Parque Bolivariano Minas de Aroa and may be visited by the public.
context_section_description: Bolívar leased the mines to a British mining company to help finance the struggle for independence from Spain.
  The fighting continued in Venezuela from 1810 to 1821.
  In 1824 Bolivar leased the mines to British entrepreneurs.
  Captain Joseph Malachy sailed from Plymouth in March 1825 to take up his position as agent and resident director of the Bolivar Mining Association at the Aroa copper mines.
  Malachy was given the huge salary of £1,200, compared to the typical salary of about £300 for a mine manager in Cornwall.
  The British employed about 1,200 workers in the mines, including British and Venezuelans.
  They used the Aroa River to carry the ore by barge to the coast, where it was loaded onto ships.
  In 1832 Bolivar's sisters Juana and Maria Antonia sold the mines to the Robert Dent, an Englishman who owned the Bolívar Mining Association.
  In the 1830s Cornishmen in the reduction department of the Aroa mines made significant advances in methods of calcinating the copper ore.
  However, the company closed the mines in 1836 due to high mortality among the European workers and tensions with the native workers.
  The Bolívar Mining Association was succeeded by companies such as the Quebrada Land Mining Company, Quebrada Railway Land and Copper Company Limited, Aroa Mines Limited and Bolívar Railway Company Limited.
  The owners planned to build a railway to the coast in the 1830s under the supervision of the young English engineer, John, later Sir John Hawkshaw.
  However, the project was put off several times due to civil wars and problems at the mines.
  The mines were damaged during the Federal War (1859–1863).
  Finally a narrow gauge line from Aroa to the port of Tucacas was opened in 1877.
  The railway was built by the British-controlled New Quebrada Railway, Land, and Copper Company, which also established a shipping service from Tucacas to Puerto Cabello, the region's main import-export centre.
  The Ferrocarril Bolívar was the first railway in Venezuela.
  Also in 1877 the road from Barquisimeto to Aroa was upgraded so it could be used by wagons and carts.
  In 1891 the railway was extended from Aroa via Duaca to Barquisimeto.
  During the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03 Britain, Germany and Italy imposed a naval blockade due to Venezuela's refusal to pay damages suffered during the Federal War.
  In 1903 the British-Venezuelan Commission made an arbitration decision in the Aroa Mines Case that damages would not be allowed for injury to people or property committed by the troops of unsuccessful rebels.
  The umpire quoted an 1868 judgement that "Damages done to property in consequence of battles being fought upon it between the belligerents is to be ascribed to the hazards of war and can not be made the foundation of a claim against the government of the country in which the engagement took place."
  Aroa was the first town in the country to obtain electricity and telephone service.
  A cableway was built linking the mines to the town.
  In 1915 the mines were owned by the South American Copper Syndicate Ltd.
  In 1930 they were operated by the English-owned Bolivar Mining Association, which used coastal mangrove trees for lumber in the mines.
  There were six mines, the Aroa Norte, Titiara, Titiara Norte, San Antonio, Zajón Verde 1 and Zajón Verde 2. 
  The longest was the Titiara Norte at 2,100 metres (6,900 ft), while the deepest was the  Aroa Norte at 95 metres (312 ft).
caption: Engine from the Tucacas-Minas de Aroa railway
exif: {"Image Make": "Hewlett-Packard", "Image Model": "HP Photosmart E330", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.4 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:30 19:58:31", "Image ExifOffset": "222", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "758", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "17638", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/120", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Portrait Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:10:25 14:43:55", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:10:25 14:43:55", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "6906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "86797/20000", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "6219/1000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "433/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Soft", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}