Santa Rosalia

Date: May 1, 2025

In a remote area of Baja, a farmer found some interesting rocks in 1868. He went over to the mainland to get the rocks identified and they turned out to be very rich in copper. Copper mining started shortly after and in 1885 a French company was created to acquire the mining rights to the whole area. The copper ore was called "El Boleo", so the company was "Compagnie du Boleo". They managed get the president of Mexico to give them the mining rights and tax freedom for 50 or 70 years (various sources give various times). In exchange, the French company had to build all the needed infrastructure including a port.

The French company ended up building a whole town and workers from China, Japan and of course Mexico ended up working the mines which were mostly open, but also some under ground. Over the years, the mining operation worked with some quite modern equipment for the time. This included a big electricity plant which was the most advanced in Mexico at the time.

When the French company started operations, the town of Santa Rosalia was founded and it still has many old houses:

Much of the old mining equipment can still be seen in town:

The ore was so rich in copper that it could just be crushed and then melted. There was likely also some sorting of the crushed rocks. This machine is probably either for crushing or sorting:

Here is a crane from the Milwaukee Electric and Manufacturing Company:

Some of the factory area has been made into a sort of park:

After about 70 years, the richest of the ore was exhausted and the French company ended up going bankrupt and the Mexican government took over operations in 1954. They continued using the now old-fashioned equipment with a loss until 1984. After that, both Canadian and Korean companies have shown interest in mining the area, but it does not seem to be working out so far.