An open pit mining project threatens 4,000 hectares of land in Segovia

This open pit mine projected northeast of Segovia to extract quartz It will be much larger than originally planned and could reach 4,000 hectares in total, according to the description of neighborhood groups that oppose the initiative. Instead, the company claims that the project will not cause irreversible damage to the environment.

Against the open pit mine northeast of Segovia, the Citizen Platform will present its claims regarding the new Erimsa/Elkem mining project in the area, which was once a Galician company, Norwegian-owned and owned by the Chinese state fund National Bluestar. Requested 45 new mining grids (1,287 ha.) To extract 80,000 tons of metallurgical quartz per year in the municipalities of Sepúlveda (Duratón), Barbolla and Sotillo.

After the project was published in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León (BOCYL), and time remains open for public disclosure and claims, the platform explains it this way in a statement. ERİMSA/Elkem It claimed the first mining project to cover an area of ​​2,785 hectares northeast of Segovia and is now claiming about 1,300 hectares more. further, He argues that the impacts on the environment, health and heritage of this region will increase exponentially, with neighbors and farmers integrated into the platform.

This new project surrounds several major archaeological sites such as Confloenta and is located next to the Duratón and Serrano rivers. According to the Platform Against Mines, the site chosen by Erimsa/Elkem is an area with an indisputable cultural and archaeological heritage, with protected natural areas, unprotected flora and fauna.

Moreover, its residents lead a lifestyle based on agriculture, animal husbandry and sustainable tourism, that they will be affected forever. “This type of mining puts our natural, ethnographic and cultural heritage and way of life at risk,” platform spokesperson Marisa Moro told Efe.

“The project owner’s own reports of environmental impacts are devastating,” Moro continues, “for the sake of a hypothetical indirect use, landscape damage, vegetation destruction, flight or death of fauna, increase in noise and disturbance are accepted – and only 6 direct jobs plus also untreated here. obtaining raw materials. This mine will definitively destroy many of our companies’ businesses. dedicated to nature and tourism and the migration of farmers and ranchers to other regions.

company version

Headquartered in La Coruña, the company is a subsidiary of the Norwegian company Elkem, which is the majority shareholder.Chinese band National BluestarHe tried to “give a message of calm to the public” regarding the project and to “listen to the concerns of the citizens” of the Municipality and associations who expressed their doubts.

In a statement, the company reiterated that the soil dredging system guarantees: “complete recovery of the land in the same conditions as before the intervention”because they first separate the fertile layer of the soil to a depth of about one and a half meters.

By sieving, all material larger than four centimeters is removed and the remainder is left in the same place so that “farms stay at original level”, “do not erode” and “remain productive”the company stated.

Finally, after the fertile layer that was separated at the beginning is laid on the same place, the process is completed with leveling and sub-earthing.

“No one will see the vast swaths we swept because We only do from two hectares to two hectares and only continue in other areas when we fully restore these farms.. In addition, always in favorable weather conditions and on a rental basis,” he said.

Affected Duraton River

For Ecologists in Action, on the other hand, the damage will be serious and above all affect the Duratón River. Special, will affect the so-called Riberas del Río Duratón Special Protection Area (ZEC-ES41600849) belongs to the European Natura 2000 protection network, which passes about 40 km of the Duratón River in two separate sections.

The first 25 km long section runs entirely through the province of Segovia at the foot of the Somosierra mountain and reaches the mouth of the Ayuso and de la Hoz rivers at the center of Sepúlveda.

This section of the river will be fully affected by the open pit mining project offered by the ERIMSA company, which has selected a significant portion of the river valley to be used, except for an inadequate 25-metre corridor on both sides. the edges of the river bed. , they explain in a note.

This destruction of vegetation Loss of soil porosity from the extraction of materials with a diameter greater than 40 mm and associated with mining operations soil compaction caused by the passage of machineryThe organization confirms that it will cause a strong increase in water erosion in the watershed that feeds Duratón.

Therefore, Ecologists in Segovia’s act suggest that the projected mining use The undoubted impact on the ecological values ​​that motivated ZEC’s statement.

“Although environmental trenches are made in the processed parcels, in the rainy season, the waters will be included in the hydrographic network carrying very high sediment loads. These sediments cause deterioration of the quality of Duratón waters and damage to aquatic species,” they say.

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Contact address of the environment department: crizclimatica@prensaiberica.es