The Board grants the exploration permit to the mine company in Cáceres.
Its main effect is that it opens the door for the concession to be requested to exploit the deposit. Now the company will complete the process of proving that there is lithium. The project's future is at stake in the next permit.
The Department of Ecological Transition of the Board reported this Tuesday that Castilla Mining has been granted the mining exploration permit for 315 grids in the municipalities of Cáceres, Sierra de Fuentes and Torreorgaz . Castilla Mining is linked to Infinity Lithium, a company that in turn participates in Extremadura New Energies (ENE), which is the company that at this stage is promoting the underground mine project in Valdeflores for the extraction of lithium. The scope of the authorization includes the space of the Valdeflores valley, where the mineral is located.
The important thing about this permit is not what is granted: exploring to demonstrate that there is lithium, but rather that it opens the door for the company for the next procedure, which is to present the request to exploit the deposit to the Board . It is in the decision on this last authorization that it will finally be seen whether the mine is viable or not. It will be, within the cumbersome and bizarre procedure that this project involves, when it will truly be decided whether there is a mine or not, regardless of. the fact that, regardless of the result, a court decision is still missing because the agreement that is adopted by the Board on exploitation, whatever it may be, it will be prosecuted.
The company has always wanted to get to the processing of the exploitation concession permit . It reached this point for an open pit mine, but the procedure was rolled back. He tried to get there again through a prior research permit, but it was not granted by the Board. And now, as announced in September, it does so through an exploration authorization, which requires fewer requirements than the research permit. The manager of ENE, Ramón Jiménez, commented this Tuesday, when asked by this newspaper, that there will be no problems in demonstrating the presence of lithium in Valdeflores . Not only are the results of the prospecting carried out by the company in 2017 and 2018, but also those that Tolsa previously obtained when it wanted to exploit the Valdeflores deposit.
The ministry specified this Tuesday that with the exploration permit the company will be able to carry out studies in areas of rustic soils with quick recognition methods, always at a superficial level . With exploration permits, unlike research permits, the configuration of the land cannot be substantially altered, so "it will not be necessary to carry out restoration actions," the Board stated. Nor can surveys and pits be carried out; in the ruling that confirmed the denial of the research permit, both were considered an extractive activity, which is prohibited by the general urban planning plan in that area.
The granting of the exploration permit has not been subjected, unlike the research authorization, to a prior public exhibition process , although, according to the ministry, access to the file has been given, "due to their status as interested parties", to two associations - the Board's statement does not specify which ones -, to an individual and to a company - nor is it detailed which company was consulted.
After demonstrating the presence of lithium in the area, the next step that the company will have to take is to apply for the exploitation concession. Jiménez trusted this Tuesday that it could happen "within a period of two or three months." At that time the company will have to present its complete project, the restoration plan, the economic viability projection and the environmental impact study. All documentation will be submitted to public information and sectoral reports will have to be collected from the administrations with powers. This will be the moment in which it will be decided whether there is a mine or not and for this the result of the environmental impact declaration and the interpretation of whether the prohibition of the general urban planning plan to carry out mining extractions in Valdeflores will only affect the surface or also the subsoil.
But for the company to be able to present all the documentation, it is necessary that the department first send it the results of the scoping study with the objections or environmental considerations on the initial project document that the company presented last September . "We still do not have the final report," explained Jiménez, although there has been access, through the file promoted by the company and the meetings with the administration, to considerations that are specific and that "barely" require modifications in the initial document, explained the ENE director. Once the complete report and all its considerations are available, they will have to be incorporated into the documentation that will be delivered to the Meeting to process the exploitation concession. Jiménez hoped to have the exploitation permit in the first quarter of 2024. With the lithium decree law of Extremadura, the mine plan is processed as a business project of regional interest, with its declaration of public utility or social interest, thus that deadlines are shortened . However, since it is a mining project, a license from the town council would be required, which maintains its jurisdiction in matters of territorial planning.
https://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/caceres-local/2023/03/28/junta-concede-permiso-exploracion-empresa-85286493.html
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