Nine Circles of Shell

Tartessos and Rio Tinto

Tartessos was a civilization in south-west Iberia that was renowned for its abundance of metals. Tin was panned out of rivers in the region to meet the demand for bronze (that's right, the one that Matt Damon ended). One river in the region that was probably worked was the Rio Tinto). The name of the river translates to "red river" because its waters have been so completely polluted by iron and heavy metal mining waste being dissolved into it. This is the result of mining activity that stretches back to the 3000 BCE. The region has been so exploited for resources for so long, and so polluted as a result, that the Wikipedia article doesn't even mention another name for it and the opening sentence bluntly identifies it as a "...a highly toxic river in southwestern Spain".

The name "Rio Tinto" arrested my attention away from the Wikipedia rabbit hole about the Phoenicians that had led me here. It was so arresting because, having lived in Utah for the last 10 years and having dated someone who worked at the Bingham Canyon copper mine, the name was already familiar to me. It's everyone's friendly local international mining conglomerate: Rio Tinto!

That's right, Rio Tinto stadium! Rio Tinto sponsors of the Natural History Museum of Utah! That Rio Tinto! The one everyone here loves. I had about 5 minutes of my life from this point where I knew about Rio Tinto the river, I knew about Rio Tinto the company, and I just assumed it was such a funny and unfortunate coincidence that the mining company shared their name with a river that had been completely annihilated by mining so thoroughly that it has never had a name that was not a reference to its defilement.

Then I read the rest of the article about the river and learned that the Rio Tinto Company is literally named after that river and they got their start exploiting and polluting it even more than it already was. I'm kind of stunned they never changed their name. Wouldn't you want to not have the literal brand name of your company be the very first river you polluted? Maybe they're proud of it? Like a small business hanging their first dollar of revenue on the wall. "Our first river defiled". Given their behavior I wouldn't put it past them.