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The rumour quickly spread as exciting news does, it sounded like something that could change the economic future of a province like Malaga, where sun and beach tourism was beginning to emerge. In January 1970, Los Jarales mine, located in front of Carratraca, was on the front pages and opened with resounding headlines, such as those of Diario SUR: "La aventura de los diamantes" (The diamond adventure). There it was pointed out that not only the village famous until then for its sulphurous water spa might also have resources of this mineral, but also a further "15 villages and 26,000 hectares".
Work on the Los Jarales mine began in 1968. Most of the information at the time states that it was the Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas which held the contract for this exploitation. However, Malaga geologist Juan Carlos Romero today provides information on two other Canadian companies, which were part of an alliance to exploit this deposit.
They were Placer Development Ltd and Noranda Mines. This data has been obtained thanks to the archives found and analysed in the University Library of Cantabria. All this makes more sense if one reads the publications of that time in SUR, which pointed out that the diamond samples extracted were analysed in Canada.
That 'diamond adventure', however, ended in a fiasco. The size of the minerals extracted was insufficient for exploitation to take place. For five years, in an area located relatively close to the town centre, tracks were created and a washing place for the diamonds, which is still preserved today, was built and still bears witness to that story now.
However, according to Juan Carlos Romero, "what was extracted from there were zircons and garnets" and not kimberlite, as was erroneously understood at the time. In this sense, he is categorical: "There is no kimberlite in the province of Malaga or in Spain".
The so-called Teyma site became a national media focus. The media of the time reported enthusiastically on the work carried out, especially between 1970 and 1971. The Malaga journalist Julián Sesmero even detailed the investment involved in this exploration in search of the mineral, "some thirty million pesetas", a very significant amount at the time.
The then mayor of Carratraca, Pedro Fernández Asensio, in an interview with Sesmero, even speculated on the possible economic benefits for the town. Although he did not know if they would eventually go to the municipal coffers as it was state land, he spoke of "two per cent of the exploitation".
The story of the diamonds quickly spread throughout Spain. Recently, the Sevillian writer Sandra Márquez has published a novel entitled Carratraca, which is set in that historic moment of diamond prospecting at the foot of the Alcaparaín mountain range.
However, the enthusiasm generated by this project in 1970 turned to disappointment in 1971. Several reports in SUR, most of them in the name of Julián Sesmero, gave a preview of the uncertainties that the activity was generating. On 16 February of that year SUR announced that work at the Teyma site had come to a standstill. Officially, according to the archives of the Royal Asturian Mining Company consulted by the geologist Juan Carlos Romero, the attempt to extract diamonds officially ended in October 1971.
There was even previous information about the existence of diamonds at the foot of the Alcaparaín mountain range thanks to a study carried out in 1919 by the geologists Domingo de Orueta y Duarte and Enrique Rubio. This report, entitled 'La zona diamantífera de Carratraca', was published in 1927, a year after the death of Orueta y Duarte.
This study, which is available from the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute, gives a detailed account of the findings made by its authors in the area of Los Jarales, at the confluence of the Moro and Los Pinos streams, where they found diamonds - up to a hundred in some places - but in very small sizes, in any case smaller than a millimetre.
But Carratraca was not the only place in the province of Malaga where there was speculation about the existence of diamonds. In addition to this area of Carratraca, according to a study by the University of Granada, there is evidence of the existence of diamonds in the municipalities of Jubrique, Ronda and Tolox, where peridotite is particularly abundant.
In this sense, Juan Carlos Romero pointed to the relationship that peridotite has with this coveted mineral, but, yes, in small sizes, below a millimetre. As such, in mountainous areas like Sierra Bermeja and other enclaves such as Carratraca or Tolox, it would be possible to find them in these conditions. This, however, would be far removed from pure diamond, which is normally found at a depth of more than a hundred kilometres.
A number of possible locations of deposits were pointed out, from Ojén to Alhaurín El Grande, Marbella and Istán. The basis of all this extensive surface area with diamond potential was based on the studies and speculations of the geologist Domingo de Orueta.
Today, diamonds of the dimensions found at the Teyma site and presumed to be found at other sites in Malaga province could only be used in industry. In no case, as they are measured in microns or little more than half a millimetre, could they be considered for use in the world of jewellery.
Carratraca, which once dreamt of a diamond mine, does, however, have a mineral treasure that was highly prized in its day. According to Juan Carlos Romero, this Malaga town "has the largest nickel deposit in all of Spain". This mineral is increasingly in demand in the technological field, although the reality is that in the province of Malaga, in particular, apart from the extraction of aggregates, there has been no mining activity for half a century. In fact, the last metal mine in the history of the province of Malaga was the one that closed in 1976 in El Peñoncillo, between Marbella and Ojén.
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