The sentence has three important conclusions. The first is that it is as valid for an open pit mining project as it is for an underground mine . The judicial procedure that gives rise to it began when the initiative was open-air, later it was changed to underground, but the considerations of the sentence are valid for both scenarios.
And they are worth it for the second of the conclusions, which is that the court puts the mining legislation and the urban regulations that are the responsibility of the city council at the same level.. This means, at the discretion of the court, that as long as the city's urban planning plan prevents mining activities in that area, neither an investigation nor any extractive activity can be carried out in the Valdeflores valley because the city's urban regulations prevent it. . At the same time, the judicial resolution reinforces the role of the city council in the decision on the project because it is the competent authority in urban matters. It will be possible to debate whether or not the plan affects the subsoil, but what this urban regulation now says is that extractive or mining activities cannot be carried out in Valdeflores due to the degree of protection that the plan gives to this land.
And the third conclusion is that the procedure to continue with the project changes radically . Until now, since the administrative process began in 2016, the company had followed the following script: first a research permit and, once obtained, a request for exploitation. The court closes this path by ratifying the decision adopted by the Board in April of last year to deny the investigation permit. The company already announced in September that the new path it would take in the event of a negative ruling would be to activate another of the permits it has requested, the exploration permit, to try to reach the final destination, which is to obtain a license to exploit the resources. miners.
https://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/caceres-local/2022/12/20/juzgado-pone-dificil-mina-cerrar-80245908.html#comments
