The mining industry of Huelva dates back to very ancient times, from the Tartessians to the Romans. In the 19th century, it was rediscovered by foreign companies that moved to the area with new technologies, technicians, managers, and culture, overseeing the exploitation of the rich deposits throughout the pyrite belt of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula. The relative proximity of the mines to the sea led to the construction of a dense railway network connecting the mines and the coastline, of which the Buitrón to San Juan del Puerto Railway was a part. The inauguration of this railway took place in 1868, making it the first mining railway in Spain and the first narrow-gauge railway in Andalusia.

This line, nearly 100 km in total length, connected the San Juan del Puerto river port on the Tinto River with the Castillo Buitrón mine, as well as with branches leading to the Tinto-Santa Rosa and Concepción mines. However, there were connections to other mines, with the link to the Riotinto mines being particularly important. The British abandoned the mines and the railway in the 1940s, and the public company 'Exploitation of Railways by the State' took over the operation of these tracks. But once the mineral was exhausted (or its extraction, treatment, and transport became too costly), freight and passenger transport declined. This led to the line's diminished profitability, and it was definitively closed in 1969, while still under FEVE, and dismantled shortly after the closure.