Doñana disaster
dam failure releasing toxic mine tailings in Andalusia, southern Spain
The Doñana Disaster, also known as the Aznalcollar Disaster or Guadiamar Disaster (Spanish: Desastre de Aznalcóllar, Desastre del Guadiamar), was an industrial accident in Andalusia, southern Spain. On 25 April 1998, a holding dam burst at the Los Frailes mine, near Aznalcóllar, Seville, releasing 4–5 million cubic metres (3,200–4,100 acre⋅ft) of mine tailings. The acidic tailings, which contained dangerous levels of several heavy metals, quickly reached the nearby River Agrio, and then its parent river, the River Guadiamar, travelling about 40 kilometres (25 mi) along these waterways and covering an area of 4,600 hectares (11,000 acres) before they could be stopped. The Guadiamar is the main water source for the Doñana National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest national parks in Europe. The cleanup operation took three years, at an estimated cost of €240 million.
The Los Frailes mine is owned by Boliden-Apirsa (formerly Andaluza de Piritas, S.A.), the Spanish subsidiary of Boliden, and produces about 125,000 t (123,000 long tons; 138,000 short tons) of zinc and 2.9 million troy ounces (200,000 lb; 90,000 kg) of silver per year.
History
The park is one of Europe’s best known conservation areas and has been designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve, a Ramsar Wetland Site, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The park’s past includes a well-chronicled human history stretching back 700 years. In its first year of operation in 1997, Boliden produced 180,000 tonnes (180,000 long tons; 200,000 short tons) of zinc, lead, copper and silver from 4 million tonnes (3,900,000 long tons; 4,400,000 short tons) of ore.
National Park
Doñana National Park, just east of Portugal, is located between two provinces of Andalucia, Seville and Huelva.
The public source identifies “Doñana disaster” as dam failure releasing toxic mine tailings in Andalusia, southern Spain. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Doñana, disaster and failure.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1870498. Authority coordinates are 37.517, -6.250. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998 and 1997.
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This entry incorporates text from “Doñana disaster” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.