Seems our former flagship project has vanished into thin air...

Seems our former flagship project has vanished into thin air with all the $$ poured into it

https://www-lavozdegalicia-es.translate.goog/amp/noticia/santiago/2023/03/29/xunta-acuerda-caducidad-concesiones-gtt-varilongo/0003_202303S29C4997.htm?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en

The Xunta agrees the expiration of the concession that was going to reactivate the Santa Comba tungsten mine that armored Hitler's tanks

The current concessionaire, Galicia Tin and Tungsten, of an Australian group, did not manage to exploit the Varilongo underground mine

The Xunta has agreed to the expiration of the concessions held by the company Galicia Tin and Tungsten (GTT) for the exploitation of the historic tungsten mine of Santa Comba for not having carried out the exploitation works but only the research ones. This mine, where extractive activity ceased in 1985, was the largest tungsten mine in Europe during World War II, as the mineral was used for the war industry of Nazi Germany to reinforce the armor of Hitler's armies.

GTT, which in 2019 was acquired by the Australian multinational Rafaella Resources , was the holder of the seven concessions of mining rights for the exploitation of tungsten and tin by underground mining of the Santa Comba Mining Group. Through the resolution of the General Directorate of Energy and Mines of the Xunta de Galicia of November 5, 2015, GTT was subrogated in the exploitation project, in the restoration plan and in the installation project of the mineral treatment plant approved metal. Therefore, from that date the company had the obligation to carry out the exploitation works in accordance with the approved projects, according to the Galician Government.

However, in the three years after the transfer of ownership of the concessions, GTT presented work plans that only included research and conditioning work , which did not enable GTT, according to the same sources, to carry out only and indefinitely research on mining rights that are for exploitation and not just for research. The archive, by Augas de Galicia , of the discharge authorization file for not having completed the required documentation, confirmed the inactivity of the company .

The requirements made to GTT did not prevent it from carrying out research as an instrumental or accessory activity of the exploitation itself, but rather that it was required to include in the work plan those of exploitation according to the approved exploitation project , with resolution of transmission of the exploitations and with what is established in the current regulations, giving it a deadline. After warning the mining company that if the work did not begin, the corresponding expiration file would be initiated, this was opened in October last year, and after its processing, which included the hearing with the interested party, finally the Territorial Office of A Coruña de the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Innovation proposed expiration. After analysis, theGeneral Directorate of Energy Planning and Mineral Resources has just agreed on the resolution of the expiration .

The Australian group expected to enter 20 million a year

The Galicia Tin and Tungsten project for the historic Varilongo tungsten mine was presented as an industrial asset for the development of Santa Comba , especially as a result of the acquisition, in 2019, of GTT by Rafaella Resources ( currently Pivotal Metals ), which calculated an initial investment of six million euros and an annual yield of 150,000 tons of mineral, currently considered strategic, worth more than 20 million euros per year, until 2030.