“It will be a mine.” There seems to be a possible answer to what the residents of Tapia de Casariego have been wondering for years. Especially when they say that they had 300,000 kilos of gold under their feet. The question is when. Spain can give the green light to the excavation of the largest mine in our country. It’s not just any mineral deposit, it’s probably the largest gold mine in Europe. And here, in Tapia de Casariego (Asturias), it is located on the coast of the Bay of Biscay.

Being neither oil nor gas, but a land of metals, Spain has been the object of desire for underground treasures. 2,000 years, when the Romans made the first excavations. They didn’t have the tools we have today, and technology couldn’t tell them where the shimmering golden metal was.

And the fact is, they were not mistaken: It is estimated that there are 480 gold deposits in Asturias alone. But the palm goes to Salave, which may be according to studies, a tail More than 300 tons of gold. At the time of the Roman Empire, only 100 million cubic meters were mined from the area, enough to mine about 7,000 kilograms of gold. It’s a small part of what’s still sleeping there.

As we explained in this other Xataka article, the Empire was capable of extracting more than six tons of gold each year from mines in the northwest peninsula. How? using a method called knock down montiumA system that, with the help of the force of water, collapses large geological structures with very little effort. At that time, Las Médulas in Leon were the mines in Spain that supplied Rome the most gold.

But the jackpot was in Tapia. Since the last century, attempts to exploit the Salave mine have not been very successful. Dozens of companies conducted hundreds of surveys in their land and did not bear fruit. Not because of the indifference of companies, but because extracting gold from it would have a serious environmental impact on the region.

Most of the residents of the municipality natural degradation worsens your quality of life. Others fear being expropriated from their homes. But the mining plan doesn’t seem ready to stop. And more so, knowing the huge amount of gold found underground. In 2010, it was very close to achieving it. AsturGold proposed a project, but in December 2014 the Principality of Asturias vetoed exploitation. Three years later, in 2017, the Principality High Court approved the veto and everything was there.

controversial project

The mining dream is not yet dead. “We hope to start producing gold at the Tapia mine within three years,” said José Manuel Domínguez, managing director of Exploraciones Mineras del Cantábrico (EMC), the organizer of the Salave JA gold mine. “It will be a mine, I’m sure,” he said.

The new project under work has a budget of 100m euros to mine around 31,000 kilos of gold in 14 years. However, it has received 1,297 environmental impact claims currently under review. EMC’s target is one million ounces of gold, about 31,000 kilos and They hope to start production in 2025.

The industry is convinced that the current project is different from the one that was much discussed many years ago and was finally not approved by the Principality. Now, for example, the use of cyanide has been abandoned and they underline this. they will pour only “99% clean” water. The company argues: “The project is not against anyone. What we want is to adapt it to make it as sustainable as possible. And that’s what we’re doing now, we consult the Administration if it’s compatible.”

Is it enough to convince people? Not open. Environmental and health deterioration is a clear conditioning factor. not even job creation prospects (around 250 new jobs) offset the damage that exploitation will cause to the local economy, especially livestock farms. Ecologistas en Acción’s geologist, Beatriz González, explained in this article that she doubted the quality of the spilled water and defended the impact on the aquatic environment as “obvious.”

The “Gold No” platform has succeeded in bringing together farmers, hoteliers, fishermen, neighbors and neighbors who oppose this new gold mining venture. They’ve been beating multinational mining companies for decades, and meanwhile, Tapia de Casariego, a small municipality that hardly anyone knows about, remains divided. What did they say: For more gold, less rest.

Images: No Gold Platform | Asturias Ecologist Coordinator