Lithium mining plans for Montalegre will be a combination of open pit and tunnel, said concession holder Lusorecursos this week, in a bid to allay opposition which focuses on the perceived horrors of 100% open pit.
Said the company, awaiting the results of an ‘environmental impact study’, tunnel extraction would go ahead in areas closest to people’s homes.
Meantime, a movement against lithium mining in Portugal is growing
Resistance in various areas has brought protests and campaigns, but now an international petition has started on the Avaaz site, entitled “Keep Portugal green and safe from massive lithium mining before it’s too late”.
The text revisits the consequences of lithium mining, suggesting that for every 1kg of lithium extracted, 100 kg of ‘debris’ is created. “The land becomes sterile, water will be scarce and high-priced” and small-scale agriculture and ecological tourism will suffer.
Lusocrecursos however claims that it is ready to plough 500 million euros into Montalegre to create 500 jobs and “implement an industrial unit” – very possibly a lithium processing plant.
Meantime, the devastating fires in the centre of the country are prompting rumours that this is part of a campaign to ‘free countryside for lithium mining’.
There is no evidence for this, other than the ‘fact’ that incendiary devices have been found – and some of the areas on fire correspond with those being targeted by mining interests.
