Penouta Mines and Ramilo Lagoons

The Penouta mines are an old mineral deposit centred mainly during the 20th century in the exploitation of Cassiterite and Tantalite, minerals necessary as components of tin and for manufacturing electrical materials respectively. Even today we can find the presence of Beryllium, Muscovite, Spessartine, Quartz and Manganese oxide patinas and in a lower concentration, Molybdenite and native Bismuth. 
Today you cannot enter and may only open pit mines. The interior works attached to the edge of the central greisen are thought to be Roman and were repaired facilitating their accessibility at the end of 1978.
Due to their abandon and works done for their exploitation gave rise to the floods known as the Ramilo Lagoons. This oligotrophic lagoon, normally containing a scarce amount of nutritional substances and little production of phytoplankton is due to the creation of a wetland over bed rock, where the slopes impeding large contributions of organic matter. Thus a young ecosystem has derived which is rapidly maturing thanks to the colonization of plants and animals in those margins where the slope allowed. In the area with fewer slopes we find aquatic plants and animals like tadpoles or gerris lacustris, whereas among the fauna one can observe many bird species associated with the wetlands of the area.

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