The Mazarrón mining archaeological sited (silver, lead, iron etc.) have been exploited since the Bronze Age. Mining and metal working enjoyed its time of greatest splendour during the Roman epoch.
The existence in Mazarrón of important sites of copper, iron, lead and silver, was the reason for intense extraction activity, which dates back to the Bronze Age. Mining reached its greatest activity with the occupation and organization of the land by Rome, which would make the most of its geological characteristics, its easy access by sea and is proximity to Carthago Nov as a distribution centre of the prime manufactured materials.
The main mining centres exploited in the Roman epoch were the mining sites which in the 19th century were known as San Cristóbal and Los Perules (next to the existing Mazarrón town), Coto Fortuna and Pedreras Viejas. The main site was El Coto Fortuna, which conserves important works of Roman engineering, such as a drainage gallery, as well as mineral extraction wells and laundries. Also found were tools and works items, coins and inscriptions, which show the duration of the activity even up to the Late Roman period, a time when this mining reserve was the only one where activity was detected. The company which exploited Coto Fortuna was called Societas Montis Argentaris Ilvcro, and from here there have appeared ingots with its inscription, even in the Tiber, close to Rome.
Next to the grand mining reserves, there is documented from the Roman Republican period extensive activity related with mining and iron working. The best known site is Loma de Herrerías, next to the road which joins Mazarrón and the Port, which survived from the first half of the 2nd century B.C. to the Augustan period. An oven excavated in the natural earth is preserved, and there are documented a series of tiered basins linked to the smelting process, in which there was found very heavy slag rich in lead. On the same hill on the high part there were found remains of opus signinum paving with tiled decoration. In an inscription in the paving, preserved in the Museum of Murcia, appears the formula HEISCE MAG (istri/ei/is) with priests and religious colleges, which indicate that this was a public or religious building.