Mineral Mines of Sardinia were active since prehistoric times.
The mines of Montevecchio and Ingurtosu that were born in the late 1800s and until the post-war activities
mining continued with excellent production in the districts of the island. Since the early
seventies the area gradually became a crisis for the progressive exhaustion of reserves no longer
economically exploitable. The closure occurred in the nineties, before the district Montevecchio
thereafter to Iglesias.
Currently in the Carbonia district mine, there are still 500 miners.
At Montevecchio you can visit the first level of the mine with the Anglo-Sardinian expert guidance of a miner.
The Anglo-Sardinian mine can be visited on the first level. It is reached by lift 24 meters deep.
Is derived from the mine lead and zinc.
In particular Ingurtosu and Montevecchio than the rest of Sardegna, we have seen a particular suffering at the expense of miners on which experienced the most inhuman methods of exploitation such as the piece bedaux.
Mr Charles Bedeaux, born in Paris in 1888 and died in Miami in 1944, was the 'inventor' of the measurement system of working time based on speed of work.
He was named the piecework system used by all mining companies.
The piece "Bedaux" was the system of scientific exploitation of workers.
This system of work was based on timing the amount of work that a worker task, with an effort, in a minute.
This amount represented the Unit Bedaux "and the number of units could determine the time of labor, in mines and Montevecchio Ingurtosu was called" 60 step ".
A miner, to be hired to work, had to reach the "60 step" was, is, under the control of the timekeeper, perform a given "step" (carry, precisely, a certain number of trucks, digging a certain number of feet, etc.).. If the worker could not reach the "step" was dismissed. When the "step" became accessible to all the miners, was systematically increased.
A pair of workmen's Jet Montevecchio mine, if the first two years of the Covenant 16/18 Company produced cars a day, after the pact was to produce 22/24.
