Volume Two of Then, There Were Mines sees iron ore gain supremacy over lead and silver, and the Men from Bilbao introduce mechanisation.

• The plundering of the wealth of Las Herrerías as lead and beautiful native silver were mined
  The greed that caused the flooding of the mines, and the riches the receding waters revealed;
  The glory days of Las Herrerías, when iron ore and foreigners reigned supreme;
  Waste not. Want not. Yesterday's barite gangue becomes valuable mena.
• La Compañia de Águilas, and the first steam railway in the province of Almería
  Luis Siret's legacy, the railway from Las Rozas to Villaricos with its bridges and tunnels;
  The installations in Villaricos where up to seven steam ships would queue to load;
  The simple secret of the line's success and the reason why it survived until modern times.
• The arrival of the Basques, the Men from Bilbao, with a can-do attitude to match the Romans
  Their aero-cable in the Sierra Almagrera, with wooden wedges keeping the buckets on the line;
  Their railway, inclined plane and massive loading pier at Cala de las Conchas;
  The beautiful building that was their headquarters, and their adjacent electricity generating plant.
• How all these innovations worked, why is 'rise over run' better than a vertical climb?
  How do aero-cable buckets pass over the wheels of the supports?
  How did they get the cables up to the top of the mountain in one piece?
  The donkey knows, but he isn't telling.