Ongoing SP Discussion, page-1082

The mine and the urban plan.

This week it has been known that the Board has given the mining company, the concession has been to one of the companies linked to the project, the exploration permit. It is, together with the research permit in the lands adjacent to the deposit, the main advance experienced by the project in recent years, a decision that was announced on Tuesday and that was reflected in the increase in the stock market price of the shares of the parent company, Infinity Lithium. This authorization opens the door to the next procedure, which is the important one, the decision on the lithium exploitation permit in Valdeflores.

The scope of the exploration permit is 9,305 hectares and covers land in three municipalities: Cáceres, Sierra de Fuentes and Torreorgaz. But of all that space, the only important one is the Valdeflores valley, which was left out of the only valid research permit obtained so far by the company.

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Jose Luis Bermejo

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JOSE LUIS BERMEJO WHEAT

The mine and the urban plan

The project has taken a significant step this week with the exploration permit, but the plan has not changed

Probing work in Valdeflores in a file photo. PHOTOS / CACERES

02 04 23 | 07:05 | Updated at 13:14

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This week it has been known that the Board has given the mining company, the concession has been to one of the companies linked to the project, the exploration permit. It is, together with the research permit in the lands adjacent to the deposit, the main advance experienced by the project in recent years, a decision that was announced on Tuesday and that was reflected in the increase in the stock market price of the shares of the parent company, Infinity Lithium. This authorization opens the door to the next procedure, which is the important one, the decision on the lithium exploitation permit in Valdeflores.

The scope of the exploration permit is 9,305 hectares and covers land in three municipalities: Cáceres, Sierra de Fuentes and Torreorgaz. But of all that space, the only important one is the Valdeflores valley, which was left out of the only valid research permit obtained so far by the company.

This week the considerations that the city council makes so that the Board prepares a scope document that serves the company to complete its environmental impact study have also been known. And in these considerations, which the city council has made public, it once again exposes what has always been one of the main pitfalls of the mine: the deposit is on land where, with the city's planning regulations, it is not possible to dig for environmental reasons. And, for now, no one is promoting a change to that rule (it was already tried in 2018, then for an open pit mine project, and it failed).

It can be debated whether or not the limitations of the plan affect the subsoil. But the truth is that until this is resolved there are two opposing realities: A project to be excavated and a land where it is not possible to excavate according to a regulation that affects all those who want to promote any project in the city and that was endorsed by the own Board.

This norm (urban planning plan) is a living document, it can be changed at any time if there are reasons for it and there are reports that justify it and approvals, but in this case it would be a structural, substantial modification, and in which You have to remove protection from a floor, not only in the space of the deposit, but also in the place where you want to install the industrial plant (the two precedents in Cáceres in recent years have ended with judicial decisions that have knocked down those modifications of the plan of urbanism).

For now, the town hall and the urban planning plan itself remain binding on the project. Less than a year ago, an autonomous lithium decree law was approved to favor these exploitations and their processing as business projects of regional interest. But a caveat was made in the regional law on measures to improve administrative response processes which, for the specific cases of lithium projects, establishes that the municipal license cannot be replaced by the consultation process included in the law of regional soil. This consultation procedure could lead to
the partial suspension of the urban planning plan for its change. But the city council maintains its

competence to decide on the granting of a license to start any work in its territory.

https://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/caceres/opinion/2023/04/02/mina-plan-urbanismo-85500188.html