Planta de Níquel Pedro Soto Alba
Moa
The nickel plant on Moa bay, the red earth all around it.
Mining & minerals
Copper since the 1500s, nickel in the east, marble on the Isle
El Cobre, in the hills above Santiago, was worked for copper from the 1530s and is among the oldest mines in the Americas. The far east holds the island's laterite, and Moa is the town that grew on it. Two more are worth knowing: the copper of Matahambre in the far west, which built a whole town around a shaft, and the marble of the Isle of Youth.
El Cobre is the one to see — the mine workings and the basilica above them are the same short trip from Santiago. Moa and Matahambre are working towns rather than sights, and the atlas maps them as such.
Where it comes from
El Cobre
Santiago de Cuba →Worked for copper from the 1530s; the basilica on the hill above it is a national sanctuary.
Municipalities: Santiago de Cuba
Open on the mapMoa and the eastern laterite
Holguín →The nickel-bearing ground of the far east, and the towns built to work it.
Municipalities: Moa, Mayarí
Open on the mapMinas de Matahambre
Pinar del Río →A western copper town that took its name from the mine it was built around.
Municipalities: Minas de Matahambre
Open on the mapPlaces to visit
Real, mapped places where the work happens — factories, curing barns, estates, quarries. Each one opens on the atlas map at its own coordinate.
Empresa Mecánica del Níquel
Moa
The engineering works that keep the mines running.
Cantera abandonada
El Cobre
The old copper pit below the hill, worked from the 1500s.
Where to buy it
Counters, markets and shops you can actually walk into, with the town each one is in.
Plaza de los Artesanos
Santa Clara
The craft square off the main park, stone and metalwork included.
Mercado Industrial Artesanal
Candelaria
A roadside craft market in the Sierra del Rosario foothills.
Museums & things to do
The museums, trails and music halls that grew up around it.
Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre
El Cobre
The national shrine on the hill above the copper workings.
Parque Cobre
El Cobre
The village park below the basilica, where the road turns.
Museo de la Orfebrería
Havana
Silver and goldwork on Calle Obispo — what the metal became.
Places from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Information only — CubaAtlas maps these places, it does not represent or transact with any of them.