In 1828 Málaga businessman Manuel Agustín Heredia founded a company called "La Concepción" to mine the magnetite iron ores of the Sierra Blanca at nearby Ojén, due to the availability of charcoal made from the trees of the mountain slopes and water from the Verde River, as a ready supply of both was needed for the manufacture of iron. In 1832 the company built the first charcoal-fired blast furnace for non-military use in Spain; these iron-smelting operations ultimately produced up to 75% of the country's cast iron. In 1860 the 1st Marquess of Duero founded an agricultural colony, now the heart of San Pedro de Alcántara.