A village in Portugal doesn’t wish to give technique to a lithium mine | EUROtoday

The cat strokes her legs. Aida Fernandes and her husband Nelson blink into the spring solar. It rained for a very long time. Now her little herd of cattle is outdoors once more within the outlet in entrance of the steady, behind which olive bushes stand on lush inexperienced meadows. “Everyone is happy,” says the Portuguese farmer, however her voice sounds unhappy. Her husband has simply turned off the pitchfork as a result of his cell phone exhibits an pressing message. “A black day,” says Nelson Gomes and passes the machine on to his spouse: The European Commission has declared its small village as a “strategic project”. A big inexperienced circle across the surrounding space marks the “Barroso Lithium Project” on the brand new EU card.

Among the forested mountains round Covas do Barroso, “White Gold” – in all probability the biggest European incidence of lithium, the uncooked materials that electrical automobiles urgently want. It is actually “behind the mountains”. This means the title of the lonely area within the excessive northeast of the nation.

With the parade undertaking for the extraction of lithium, the Portuguese authorities and the EU wish to show that Europe is impartial and now not depending on states like China. For the EU Commission, it’s “a milestone for European sovereignty as an industrial night”. A complete of 47 strategic tasks are meant to make sure home uncooked materials care. The EU is now serving to that it’s fast in Portugal.

“We are sacrificed for the energy transition,” says Aida Fernandes Bitter and factors to the opposite aspect of the valley. A small piece of forest is cleared there. Employees of the British mining firm Savannah Resources are nonetheless doing trial bores, subsequent yr the work within the opencast mine ought to begin. In 2027, traders wish to promote the primary spodums from which lithium may turn out to be half one million electrical automobile batteries a yr – or extra.

For this, Savannah has secured an space of ​​virtually 600 hectares. Four a whole lot of meter deep mining holes will hole the place forest grows at present. In addition, mountains with greater than 80 million tons of overlap. Water runs are redirected, bypass roads and a processing plant are constructed. Investors wish to spend 350 million euros in one of many poorest areas of Portugal. For 14 years, the machines might be within the forest lubrican.

Her two canine accompany Aida Fernandes from the steady with the 2 dozen brown limousine cattle and a big crowd of hen down the mountain. The concession begins lower than 400 meters away at an intersection within the forest. “They think that at the southern periphery of Europe we are stupid donkeys with which they can do everything,” says the 45 -year -old farmer. She fears for her untouched dwelling, which she by no means left; Their ancestors had been already farmers.

Aida Fernandes is aware of her like few others. As the president of the meeting of the villagers, she watches over the “Baldios”. These are the pastures and forests that every one use collectively. The world vitamin group FAO has defined the world of ​​the one world of agriculture in Portugal: folks inhabit and have been managing them for hundreds of years. Sixty p.c of the frequent areas will now be a part of the lithium concession.

Finally spring is. In the gardens behind the homes product of grey granite and within the fields behind outdated stone partitions, sowing and planted are all over the place. Beans, potatoes, grain. A shepherd drives his herd over the plush inexperienced meadows. Around 300 folks reside within the three districts that join curvy roads. They are so slender that automobiles and tractors can hardly keep away from. “We have everything here and can take care of ourselves,” says Filip Gomes. The water within the river is so clear that trout swimming in it. The son of Nelson Gomes sells the honey of his bees within the café, which he opened along with his life accomplice Ira a number of months in the past on the village sq..

At the place round a stone cross from the 18th century there’s the whole lot that makes up the place: pleased with your historical past and custom, recent begin – and concern. The smoke -rolled bakery of the neighborhood stands reverse the café. In addition, posters flutter with the inscription “Não à mina! Sim à vida” (no to the mine! Yes to life!). They hold all over the place and apply to the group from London, whose signal is emblazoned at a home. Savannah has arrange a small residents’ workplace there. For virtually eight years, a whole lot of demonstrators have gathered on Kreuz-Square to protest in opposition to the lithium plans.

The Portuguese village behind the mountains has turn out to be a scene for a battle with a totally new entrance. Environmentalists battle with the residents in opposition to a undertaking to assist to get the implications of local weather change below management and to advertise electromobility. The uncooked supplies for the power transition are to be promoted in Europe with European requirements and now not come from Africa or South America, as is the case with the lithium.

In Covas do Barroso, the accusation hurts {that a} dozen fats skulls are simply progressing simply because they needed their calm. “They accuse us that we are not ready to sacrifice ourselves for the planet,” says Nelson Gomes. Activists like him demand to rethink the complete power change. You have to cut back and never exploit nature much more. The world now not wants electrical automobiles, however extra public transport.

For Nelson’s son Filip and lots of neighbors, it isn’t nearly a special power coverage. He and his accomplice Ira put all her cash into the small stone home. In latest years, many visitor staff from France, Germany and Great Britain have returned to the loneliness of their place of birth, have renovated or rebuilt. The couple met in London, the place they each labored as cooks. They invested 150,000 euros of their new restaurant and the house over it. The bar has turn out to be the brand new assembly level. Soon there mustn’t solely be marble cake and muffins. “We want to offer dishes with meat and vegetables. This is sustainable,” says Filip Gomes and provides worries: “If the mine does not thwart us.”

The mistrust is nice and eventually grown. The latest exploration outcomes are “really exciting,” stated Savannah in January. They indicated a bigger incidence than the beforehand estimated 28 million tons: it was the biggest European deposit for spodums, from which lithium will be obtained for as much as one million electrical automobile batteries a yr. A complete of 4 feminine caves are deliberate within the area.

It all began virtually conspiratorously eight years in the past when a number of staff on the outdated feldspar mine had been troubled on the opposite aspect of the valley. At first it regarded as if solely they had been to be reactivated. A villager who lived in Great Britain met with details about the lithium undertaking within the press there. The concession space grew from a number of hectares to 600. Many subsequently really feel concerning the authorities within the distant Lisbon.

“There should never be negotiations with those affected. The only decision against which they were made was:” sure or sure’, “says Diogo Sobral. The sociologist moved from Lisbon to the village. There he researched for his doctoral thesis on the protest movement, which he belongs to himself. “The Portuguese authorities is an EU priest and acts as a undertaking developer.” Not all protests were peaceful like the summer camp. For seven months, activists blocked the machines of the exploration teams. At the turn of the year there was an attack on the small Savannah office.

In Lisbon, socialists, such as conservatives at the head of the government, emphasize that the local population has no veto law against the use of national resources. It is pointed out that everything goes his prescribed gait: almost two years ago, an environmental impact assessment made only a few requirements. The path is almost free, the last complaints are more like retreat battles.

Not the whole lot at Savannah in coping with the residents lately, admits Thomas Gaultier, “we needed to work on that”. As a “Community Relations Manager”, he has been trying to win the population for the project, which can still be visited as a model in his office in the nearby district town of Boticas. It takes up a large part of the room. The French -born with a legal approval in New York is a professional mediator. He has already taught for mining companies in the Republic of Congo, Sambia and Mozambique.

His new activity is typically “somewhat irritating,” says Gaultier, who speaks fluently Portuguese. A few “gatekeepers” in the village refused to dialogue and tried to prevent at least others from getting their own picture. It is clear who the lawyer is talking about, everyone knows everyone behind the mountains.

Thomas Gaultier has organized a month-to-month radio present, and knowledge materials is piling up within the workplace: Elaborately printed brochures about “good neighborhood” with advantages for everyone – more than 200 direct jobs and ten times as many indirect places. The fact that the mine will have a closed water cycle and does not need the Covas river. About noise and dust protection.

“Unfortunately we transfer in direction of expropriations, regardless that we’ve made a pleasant provide,” says Thomas Gaultier. Almost ten million euros are planned for community country. Unfortunately, however, there are no conversations with Aida Fernandes’ “Baldio” Association. On the homepage of Savannah, the investors write: “We understood”: You listened to people and it was a “protected undertaking of all for all”. Never more than two open -cast mines should be in operation at the same time. And immediately everything is refilled and reforested – as if nothing had happened, only with a better infrastructure.

Actually, the investors wanted to be further. A new refinery in Germany is already waiting for the raw material from the Barroso. The AMG Lithium BV, which also has a seat in Frankfurt, took part in Savannah with around $ 20 million. With a share of 16 percent, the company has become the largest shareholder and secures the delivery of up to 90,000 tons of spodums for lithium production annually-a total of more than 190,000 tons are planned a year. The Portuguese mine is to supply the new refinery in Bitterfeld via a seaport near Porto.

The Export credit insurance Euler Hermes (now Allianz Trade) is also interested in the project. It is said to be a coverage of up to 270 million euros, possibly in cooperation with the German Kreditanstalt für recovery (KfW) and the federal government. According to its own statements, the KfW subsidiary IPEX is at the beginning of an extensive examination phase.

In Covas do Barroso it’s tough to search out somebody who speaks for the mine. The opponents appear drained, their confidence has disappeared. But the farmers proceed. The centuries -old Espigueiros rise from granite in entrance of their farms. On excessive columns, the reminiscence protects corn and different meals from the mice. They fall into many locations, they’re crammed within the village yearly.