https://www.eldiario.es/extremadura/economia/junta-concede-permis...

https://www.eldiario.es/extremadura/economia/junta-concede-permiso-exploracion-empresa-mina-litio-caceres_1_10074497.html

The Cáceres lithium mine will apply for the concession after receiving the exploration permit from the Board

The company will now present the industrial project, which after a change in the initial project will be underground and not open-air

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has granted the exploration permit called 'Extremadura SE' to the company Castilla Mining SLU, today Extremadura New Energy (ENE), a subsidiary of Infinity Lithium, an Australian company that promotes underground exploitation in Cáceres of what could be the largest lithium deposit in Europe.

The exploration permit , which not only affects the municipality of Cáceres, but also that of Sierra de Fuentes and Torreorgaz, authorizes the work aimed at analyzing whether there is boron, zinc, tin, tungsten, lithium, gold and lead under its soils.

The permit, for an extendable period of one year, is now resolved after being requested on June 4, 2019 for an extension of 315 mining grids, as reported by the Junta de Extremadura.

The exploration permit, as regulated by Law 22/1973, of July 21, on Mines, enables to carry out studies and surveys on metallic mining resources as long as the technique used does not substantially alter the configuration of the land.

The Board emphasizes that with the granting of this permit "the developer company will be able to carry out studies in areas of rustic soils through rapid recognition methods in order to select the most interesting areas."

In this sense, the exploration project will make it possible to expand the structural geological knowledge of the affected area at the surface level through the manual collection of 100 low-volume samples and other petrographic and mineralogical tests of 20 samples, to which a gravimetric campaign will be added.

With this permit, unlike with the research permit, "it will not be necessary to carry out restoration actions on the space, since the permit granted does not affect or generate mining waste."

However, this permit "does not exclude the need to obtain other authorizations that are necessary in accordance with the laws in force."

Satisfaction of the mine promoters

ENE considers this authorization very positive and announces that, once the exploration permit has been obtained, it will present the request for the Concession Pass to the Junta de Extremadura, which will begin the formal procedure to start the corresponding environmental impact studies.

During this procedure, the integrated industrial project will be presented, which includes a 100% underground extraction and a lithium hydroxide production plant. A project that, in addition, will incorporate the recommendations and comments made by the technicians of the regional government and the City Council in response to the start-up document registered in October by the company.

In this way, the company continues with the administrative processing of an industrial initiative that will involve an investment of 600 million euros and the creation of 1,500 jobs during the two years of construction and 700 direct jobs during its useful life.

It should be remembered that Extremadura New Energies has presented a new project that responds to the highest environmental sustainability standards of the European Union, with, among other things, hydrogen power, use of electrical machinery, an innovative lithium extraction process and more sustainable and work models that aim to minimize emissions and discharges..