 The railroad arrived in the region in 1881, and during World War I local tungsten deposits were exploited to supply the arms industry.In 1918 the Ponferrada Mining, Iron and Steel Company (') was founded to exploit coal deposits in the region, and it grew to become Spain's largest coal mining corporation.The Spanish National Energy Corporation (Endesa) was founded in 1944 and in 1949 it opened Spain's first coal-fueled power plant in Ponferrada, "Compostilla I".