Up to five times so far in 2025, both the Spanish government (three times) and the European Commission (twice) have reiterated, in response to questions from the BNG, that the Doade (Orense) underground mine project had justified its “technical and economic solvency”. … and environmental”, an essential condition for obtaining consideration of strategic project of the European Commissionand which this project boasts of. Despite this, BNG Senator Carmen da Silva once again questioned the central executive on this question – whether they will be “complicit” in “environmental destruction” – and the answer again leaves no doubt.
“Here it is important to emphasize that obtaining the status of strategic project by the Commission does not allow environmental requirements to be circumvented, environmental requirements are not reduced At the national level, national regulations remain fully applicable and any extraction activity must be subject to the obligatory environmental impact assessment, which is also binding,” responded the Secretary of State for Energy, Joan Groizard.
Not satisfied with the response, the nationalist senator, who joked about the “idyllic” nature of the images of the project, to the point of appearing to her as “a luxury spa instead of a mining operation”, accused the project of encouraging “an extractivist model that devastates the territory to obtain the materials necessary to strengthen the arms industry. Along the way, he continued with the usual dialectic of the BNG to refer to it and to Altri, to the Touro mine, or to any other industrial project with the intention of developing in Galicia, slipping in that the objective is “launder all the lithium» which becomes the EU.
Furthermore, da Silva disgraced the fact that the project had already been rejected in 2018 – even though it was a different mining project – and accused the Xunta of having “communicated with thousands of people who claimed in the file that they are not interested persons, limiting the possibility of public action in an environmental matter. An accusation similar to that which the Bloc already used in its time with the Altri de Palas de Rei project, in the treatment of which only 5% of the allegations came from the inhabitants of the area proposed to establish the factory, those who had the right to be considered an interested personin collaboration with associations representing the people potentially concerned. In the case of the Doade mine, the senator speaks of “thousands of people” despite the fact that the population of the municipality of Beariz – where the parish of Xirazga is located which will host the project – does not reach a thousand inhabitants.
Current project
In any case, and despite the fact that state and European regulations continue to apply, the environmental treatment of the mine corresponds to the Xunta, as recalled by the Secretary of State. After the project promoter, Samca Group, submitted the application for an operating concession in January 2025, in June this year, the public exhibition process and the period of allegations for individuals and associations.
Once the process is completed, the mining promoter will have to analyze and respond to these allegations and then send the information to the Department of the Environment, which will gather the documentation obtained in the different sectoral reports prepared by the competent administrations to prepare a Environmental impact study (DAY). It is from this report that it will be possible to deduce whether the project complies with environmental legislation and whether a corrective or compensatory measure is appropriate or, directly, the project is rejected.
About The Author
