This Motril tourist attraction was opened to the public three years ago, before closing down again owing to instability within the mine shafts. And so it has remained due to a lack of public funds.

Now, after a meeting between the Junta and the Motril Town Hall, the former is going to provide 723.300 euros for the mining museum-cum-park and a further 58,300 euros to spruce up the Charca de Suárez wetlands.

The Mayor, García Chamorro, has announced that the Junta intends to open both the mines and the park around it, and at the same time link it as a dual tourism package to the wetlands reserve. A total of 4.7m euros has already been spent by the Junta on restoring the old mines above Motril and turning the hillside into a park

The Councillor for the Environment, Sánchez Rubio, explained that part of the money received will be spent on building replicas of the old mining equipment and resurfacing the access road, as well as installing water mains and sewage evacuation for the complex. To carry out this work it is estimated that it will take 450 days and will be divided by the hired labour force.

When the complex is finished, the running of the surface recreational area will be handed over by the Junta to the Town Hall.

Finally, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, 41,865 euros will be spent on the wetlands for earth movement tasks and the sealing off of a cement-block structure.

(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)