Editing Mequinenza (section)

==== The development of the Mequinenza coalfield ====
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The arrival of the twentieth century led to an increase in the demand for coal and the development of the [[Mequinenza coal basin]]. The first initial exploitations were totally underground through galleries and inclined planes depending on the coal levels. Originally, the wagons were used with animal traction until around 1920, when they began to be replaced by mechanical and electrical traction.

In 1880 Carbonífera del Ebro company was founded, which would become the most important company in the Mequinenza basin. The growth was focused on Mequinenza since it was the natural epicenter of the basin although it also grew nearby towns such as [[La Granja d'Escarp]], [[Torrente de Cinca]] or [[Fayón]]. In twenty years, from 1900 to 1920, the town grew from 2,400 inhabitants to 4,200, mostly men. An avalanche that was repeated again in the 1940s. The numbers are imprecise, but in 1945 the chief engineer of the Zaragoza district stated that the mining population, among workers and family, was 4,132 people. There were three main mining colonies called Virgen del Pilar, Previsión and Electroquímica de Flix. The mining colonies of Mequinenza came to host more than 900 people in 1945. Mequinenza became a mining town where Aragonese miners arrived (from [[Andorra, Teruel|Andorra]], [[Utrillas]], [[Montalbán, Teruel|Montalbán]], [[Alcorisa]] or [[Aliaga, Aragon|Aliaga]]) and also from [[Asturias]], Andalusia, [[Murcia]] and [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]]. Mining transformed the local community and modified also the traditional economic activity, based on [[rainfed agriculture]].<ref name=":0" />