“We know what open-pit mining is: landscape will be destroyed”
A group of former miners who worked the uranium mines of Urgeiriça have joined the ‘people’s fight’ against lithium mining in Covas do Barroso, Boticas.
Around 50 former miners and their families visited the village ‘that won’t give in’ in a symbolic initiative today.
“We know what an open-pit mine is,” António Minhoto, president of the Association of former Miners of Uranium Mines (ATMU), told Lusa.
Lithium exploration in Boticas “will not help this region at all”, he said – alluding to the reality of open-pit exploration, the size of the mine, the methods to be used, the various work fronts and the dust, all of which will have “brutal repercussions” on groundwater and springs.
Not pulling his punches, Minhoto said that the landscape (much of it prized UNESCO Agricultural Heritage) will be destroyed” – arguments that have been consistently used by local people and the Boticas municipality to push back against the project promoted by Savannah Resources – a company ‘based in the UK’ but now with a Portuguese CEO.
Minhoto drew from past experience, to warn what lies in store for Boticas: “After destroying all this (meaning the Boticas landscape), the land will not be restored. We have the example of the uranium mines; they do not restore, they minimize. It is always a question of minimizing the effects, nothing is ever restored”, he said.
Minhoto added that “ATMU cannot remain indifferent” to what is happening in Boticas (with the government recently giving Savannah the power to invade people’s land). “It cannot allow what has already happened (in Urgeiriça) to happen again”.
The story of Urgeiriça is little-publicised: even the fact that former miners are taking the government to court over its failure to decontaminate their homes is barely mentioned these days; nor the reality that cases of cancer in the immediate locality are numerous.
Today’s visit by ATMU was principally ‘in solidarity’ for the fight of the association Unidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso (UDCB). The group brought a banner with them, emblazoned with the words: “Association of former miners of Uranium mines in solidarity with the people of Covas do Barroso – no to lithium mines”.
Said António Minhoto: “We came here to convey to these people that they can count on us and that they must fight because the sustainability of the region is not assured by mines that after 10, 15 years leave everything destroyed and where the great wealth that was no longer exists”.
For UDCB, the visit gave renewed power to their fight. The former miners’ stories “showed people what to expect from an open-pit lithium mine, of the sort Savannah is seeking to operate over a concession area of more than 500 hectares.
UDCB is still battling to ensure that the letter of the law is carried out: the association has won a reprieve from the ‘land invasion’ sanctioned by the government, but the heavy machinery that should have been removed from the sites remains waiting for a judicial decision (which Savannah believes will go in its way).
Meantime, ATMU is making a tour of mining areas with a view to preparing for the association’s 3rd congress, which will take place in May and discuss topics such as the history of mines, culture and health (the latter being particularly relevant considering that so many former miners suffer health problems).
For anyone unaware of the history of the Urgeiriça mines, it is fascinating. But it has come with a heavy price, which is why ATMU stresses the people of Boticas must keep fighting.
natasha.donn@portugalresident.com
Source material: LUSA
