I thought I'd share some of the reading I've done on 'Hoy' a...

I thought I'd share some of the reading I've done on 'Hoy' a local news site.

It's behind a paywall so here is a copy of the article (sorry about the broken English... Google translate is still amazing though...):

Cristina NunezCRISTINA NUNEZcaceresThursday, December 22, 2022, 07:46

The Department of Ecological Transition asked the promoter company for new contributions due to the shortcomings of the project presented in September. The Junta de Extremadura detected several deficiencies in the initial document of the underground lithium mine project that the promoter Tecnología Extremeña del Litio SL registered on September 28, which has delayed the process for the Ecological Transition Council to issue the scope document of the environmental impact study of the project led by the company Extremadura New Energies (ENE).As reported by Transición Ecológica, the insufficient data in this 152-page document led to a request for its correction. After successive contributions of documentation by the company, the last one on November 23, an "adequate and sufficient" document was available from that date to begin the process of preparing the scope document that is in process in these moments and within which the consultation process has already been launched.This letter will not be available before the end of January.

This is a pronouncement from the environmental body addressed to the promoter whose purpose is to delimit the breadth, level of detail and degree of specification that the strategic environmental study must have.

What has already begun is the process of consultations with the affected public administrations and interested persons, with 20 business days to reply.Both Law 16/2015 on environmental protection and Law 21/2013 on environmental evaluation establish that these consultations are required to prepare the impact study scope document.After analyzing these responses, the environmental body will prepare and send to the promoter and the substantive body the scope document of the environmental impact study, together with the responses received to the queries made, as provided in the aforementioned environmental protection and environmental evaluation laws.

My understanding based on the above is that the local government is one of the stakeholders consulted by the regional government to prepare the study scope document but the local government will not have the final say, which is reassuring (for me at least).

A separate article published on the same website more recently confirms the consultation process at play:

Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 1:19 p.m.

The mayor of Cáceres, Luis Salaya, reported in the sectorial council for the Environment held this Tuesday that on December 20 he received a letter from the General Directorate of Sustainability of the Junta de Extremadura "to carry out the appropriate environmental considerations for the preparation of the environmental impact study scope document” regarding the Valdeflores lithium mine and treatment plant . You must do so in accordance with the initial document submitted by Tecnologia Extremeña de Lithium, a subsidiary of Infinity Lithium, in November. Salaya assured the council that the City Council will defend the urban planning plan, which currently prohibits extractive activity in the Valdeflores valley.

The documentation registered by the company analyzes three possible places where to locate the processing plant and access to the mine galleries, whose exploitation is proposed underground. "The final location in any case would depend on the environmental impact study, the urban planning plan and the delimitation of the protected landscape," Salaya explained to the political representatives and social groups present at the sectoral council, which met in the Space for the Young Creation.

The mayor said that a request has already been made to the services of the City Council with competence in licenses to carry out this report and that the document will be public. "We are clear that our position will be to defend our plan, the legality and of course provide all the information we can and provide the file," he said, although on previous occasions Salaya has stated that it will be the environmental impact study that has now begun to prepare the one that determines whether or not there will be a mine in the Sierra de la Mosca.

Interesting months ahead...