English to Spanish Art/Literary Tourism & Travel minería

But back to our walk. The level section indicates the way along which the iron ore wagons came from the bottom of the inclined plane to tip their loads into the hoppers. However, at the end of this level stretch we can see a group of beehives. We’re not keen to walk too close to them and, even though there is no obvious bee activity, we decide on discretion.
We have to gain height somehow though. All the surrounding slopes are steep and scrubby, so we start to climb the hillside on our left, a hundred metres or so before the hives, each of us making our own way up through the difficult vegetation. After fifteen minutes of awkward struggle, we gain a subsidiary ridge-line and continue at an easier angle across the slope, heading for the top of the inclined plane.
At the high point of the inclined plane is a slot-like pit. This, I imagine, is the site of the winding gear which was once used to lower the full wagons down the slope. I have the sense of seeing history under my feet and being in the enjoyable position of trying to interpret what I am looking at. From here, another level track contours on for 200 metres or so, ending at a brick-arched tunnel entrance, no longer passable. I later learn that this tunnel is 320 metres long and was built to link the north side of the hills to this southern slope. After it had been opened, in 1908, ore could be brought from the richest deposits, and this marked the beginning of the operation of this ‘wagon-way’ down to the coast by a company called S.A. Argentifera de Almagrera. The name suggests 'silver' but, just to clarify, although silver and then lead were the catalyst when the mining operations began in the first half of the 19th century, by the beginning of the 20th century those minerals were worked out and the company was focussed on extracting iron ore, particularly around Las Herrerías and Las Rozas, as described in the next chapter.