Aznalcóllar is a city located in the province of Seville, southern Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. It is located at the feet of the Sierra Morena

Sierra Morena

The Sierra Morena is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain.It stretches for 400 kilometres East-West across southern Spain, forming the southern border of the Meseta Central plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, and providing the watershed between the valleys of the Guadiana to the...

.

Aznalcollar mine

The Boliden

Boliden AB

New Boliden is a Swedish mining and smelting company focusing on production of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver. Following a series of acquisitions during the 1980s and 1990s the company acquired mining and smelting assets of the Finnish mining and smelting company Outokumpu in 2003. Outokumpu...

 mine produces around 125,000 tonnes of zinc and 2.9 million ounces of silver per year.

The residue pool at the mine burst in late April 1998 sending a toxic wave into Donana National Park

Doñana National Park

-Conservation:In 1989 the surroundings of the national park were given more protection when a buffer zone was declared a natural park under the management of the regional government. The two parks, national and natural, have since been classified as a single natural landscape.In 1994 UNESCO...

, one of Europe's largest nature reserves. The spill caused damage over an area of around 30-kilometres, destroying rare plant and wildlife.

External links

• Aznalcóllar - Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía