There is something in the mountains of Granada that China wants... and is getting, and that is celestine, used in mobiles, tablets and electric-car batteries.

The mineral is found worldwide, usually in small quantities. Pale blue crystal specimens are found in Madagascar. White and orange variants also occurred at Yate, Bristol, UK, where it was extracted for commercial purposes until the mid-20th century, according to Wikipedia.

Here in the province of Granada there are quarries in Montevive hills in Las Gabias where celestine is extracted and lorried down to Motril Port. This year alone they expect to handle 200,000 tonnes of this mineral.

At the beginning of last month a huge Chinese cargo ship loaded 50,000 tonnes of this ore containing this mineral, which has between 70% and 77% purity.

Canteras Industriales, which provides the raw material dug from these local quarries since 1973, exported 143,644 tonnes last year, and the expectations for this year will make it the best ever.

Mining it is one thing, getting it to the port without a rail link required around 2,000 trips by lorries belonging to the local road-shipping company, Transportes Sabio.

Down in the port it is the logistics operator, Terminal Marítima Granada (TMG) that handles the loading and unloading of the ocean-going cargo ships and it is not only celestine from Montevive that they handle there, but also dolomite (dolostone) and gypsum, all from quarries in Granada.

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