Extremadura has a treasure that everyone wants: raw materials for manufacturing batteries. In fact, it has the only nickel deposit in Europe: the Aguablanca mine, in the municipality of Monesterio.
It has been closed for a decade, but will soon reopen. The aim is to extract cobalt, nickel, copper and platinum group metals for 20 years, and the European Commission has selected it as a strategic project to secure the supply chain for critical raw materials.
Aguablanca was not profitable a decade ago. Now the reality is different
Extremadura is a major source of critical materials. The Aguablanca mine is estimated to hold three million tonnes of nickel and contribute up to 30% of European capacity, and could be operational by the end of the year. However, the nickel obtained is a concentrate that must then undergo a steelmaking process that is carried out elsewhere, usually in China.
Environmental groups have taken the reopening of the mine to court due to the impact its operation will have on the environment. In this regard, the Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation has granted the concession to the company Río Narcea Recursos for 20 years, on condition that no water stored in the ponds is discharged into surface or groundwater.
The mine has been closed for 10 years. In 2014, according to the Extremaduran newspaper Hoy, Aguablanca produced 8,631 tonnes of nickel and 7,390 tonnes of copper, exceeding expectations, but the following year the price of nickel plummeted and there was no permit to extract this mineral from underground galleries. It ceased to be profitable.
Now nickel and the raw materials it contains are considered essential in the transition to electric vehicles, and Europe needs them if it does not want to continue depending on China. Thus, the European Commission announced 47 strategic projects across the continent, seven of which are in Spain: four are entirely dedicated to extraction, one to recycling and two combine extraction and processing.
Of these, three are located in Extremadura: one is in Alguablanca, another in Las Navas, in Cañaveral, for lithium extraction, and another is “La Parrilla” in Almoharín, for tungsten extraction and processing. The EU Critical Raw Materials Act stipulates that by 2030, at least 10% of these materials must be extracted in the EU, 40% must be processed internally and at least 15% must be recycled.
The aim is to prevent more than 65% of any supply coming from a single country, as is currently the case with China and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
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