Oh well... still pouring $$ into Spain. Now building a $1M water...

Oh well... still pouring $$ into Spain. Now building a $1M water treatment plant in a mine with no permits to mine. ST will we ever get the news here before the local greenies do?

https://www-noticiasgalicia-com.translate.goog/articulo/a-coruna/ecologistas-accion-denuncia-que-empiezan-trabajos-ejecutar-vertido-mina-san-finx-pesar-oposicion-poblacion/20230412150227148310.html?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-EN&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Ecologists in Action denounces that the works to carry out the discharge in the San Finx mine begin despite the frontal opposition of the population of the Noia region and the entire fishing sector. The environmental organization calls to mobilize on April 29 in Santiago and support the demonstration called by the brotherhoods to prevent the environmental catastrophe that this discharge of acid mine drainage would cause.

This week, the subsidiary of the Australian company Pivotal Metals began construction work on a mine drainage treatment plant at its San Finx mine, in Lousame, as a step prior to the start of emptying hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of contaminated water. An operation that could begin before the summer.

Ecologists in Action verified the start of the works, with the leveling of the area in which a water treatment warehouse is going to be built, the effectiveness of which was questioned by brotherhoods, town halls and dozens of environmental groups. The actions are illegal, since the activity was not subjected to an environmental impact assessment and the project approved in 2009, which includes 12 jobs, did not provide for any type of treatment for water contaminated with heavy metals.

The environmental organization describes the Xunta as "reckless" by allowing the start of the works and the discharges without first resolving the dozens of appeals filed against the discharge authorization granted illegally last February, and for which Criminal proceedings have already been initiated in the Santiago courts against the responsible officials and senior officials. In addition, Ecologistas en Acción announces the imminent filing of lawsuits before the Galician Superior Court of Justice as soon as the 3-month period available to the Department of Infrastructure to resolve the appeals has elapsed.

The environmental organization considers that allowing the emptying of the mine can cause serious and irreparable damage to the ecosystems and shellfish banks of the Muros and Noia estuary, and that it also makes no sense, since, once they are even emptied the waters of the flooded plants, the Australian company does not have the permits to be able to carry out the exploitation.

They recall that obtaining the exploitation permits could take years as it requires an environmental impact assessment, while the mine drainage, which would double the river flow, will have to be continuous, causing permanent heavy metal contamination and totally unnecessary.