The territorial delegate in Huelva of the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment of Andalusia, Pedro Yórquez Sancha, signed on August 28 the environmental authorization for a pond of 15 million m3 of toxic waste in the municipality of Cortegana that the Sandfire mining company plans to build. -MATSA, company where his brother works.
Pedro Yórquez Sancha was appointed territorial delegate of the ministry on September 7, 2022. In this way he acquired the status of senior official of the Junta de Andalucía chaired by Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla (PP). By then, his brother had been performing different functions at the MATSA mining company for about ten years, according to his professional profile.
The territorial delegate of the Board thus signed the environmental approval for the infrastructure that the company calls “tailing management facility.” What MATSA (Mina de Aguas Teñidas SA) actually wants to do is excavate a large deposit for mining waste in the middle of a pine forest. Because that is what tailings are: the materials left over from the process of separating the valuable fraction (the ore) from the one that is disregarded (the bargain).
The project foresees a deposit with a capacity for 15 million cubic meters about 700 meters from the houses of Valdelamusa (a neighborhood in the town of Cortegana). To be sized, the Aznalcóllar mining sludge pond that, when it burst in 1998, flooded the Guadiamar River that feeds Doñana with waste, let out 5.5 million m3 of waste.
The mining company considers this deposit to be crucial to its plans. In its Design Project it has described that “it is worth highlighting the importance of the construction of the Tailings Management Facility (hereinafter IGT) for the maintenance of mining activity and the operation of the treatment plant.”
And he continues linking the future of the business activity to this pond: “For the continuity of the mining operation, a facility is necessary to deposit the waste, which is why the IGT is a fundamental facility for the future operational life of the mine,” says the document presented to the Administration.
The waste that will accumulate is sterile from a “flotation phase” in which a mixture of water and mineral called pulp is generated. They are then thickened before being deposited in the pond. The waste that is planned to be retained in the deposit has “a high concentration of sulfides and a high acid-generating potential” so they are considered “dangerous” according to regulations, indicates the mining company’s documentation.
The resolution authorizing the plan states that the project would not generate “a severe or critical impact” on the “environmental factors” of which it lists: atmosphere, geology, hydrology, vegetation, habitats, fauna, population, infrastructure, cultural heritage and landscape. . “All of them mostly [se ven] affected in a moderate or compatible manner,” the resolution details. And he adds that “the population has a positive impact due to the creation of employment and economic activities in the construction phase.”
In this sense, at least, part of the population does not share that beneficent vision. Neighbors in the area near the project in Valdelamusa, El Cerro de Andévalo, La Zarza, Calañas and La Mora are protesting, above all, against the location of the deposit. They have collected 4,400 signatures of support and called a demonstration for November 17. The main objection, they point out, is not so much the mining activity, but the place chosen to excavate the pond “a few meters from the homes,” they remember.
“It is not related to the project”
The Territorial Delegation of the Environment has responded to elDiario.es that “from a legal point of view” it considers that “there is no incompatibility.” And he argues that the delegate’s brother “is not a senior official in the company, nor has he presented the project and he is not in the area of the company involved.”
The law on incompatibilities of senior officials of the Junta de Andalucía establishes that these positions “are obliged to recuse themselves from knowledge of matters in whose office they have intervened or that concern companies, entities or societies in whose direction, advice or administration they have had any influence.” part of them, their spouse, de facto partner registered in the corresponding Registry or person in their family within the second civil degree.”
The company, in turn, responds that “the AAU authorization process has been carried out in accordance with current legislation, so there is no conflict of interest or incompatibility in its administrative processing.” They also argue that “within the MATSA faculty area, made up of a dozen professionals, the aforementioned worker has not had any participation in the construction project of the waste management facility to which the AAU refers. “Its functions have no relation to said project.”
Advisor, councilor, delegate
Pedro Yórquez Sancha began his political career as an advisor to the mayor of Aljaraque (Huelva) of the Popular Party Juan Manuel Orta between 2003 and 2007, according to his resume housed in the Huelva Town Hall. Starting in 2007, he became a PP councilor in the municipality until 2022. He became second deputy mayor. From there he went to the Sustainability Department of the Board.
MATSA considers this infrastructure “fundamental” to expand its activity. It requested this authorization for the first time in December 2022, but it could not be processed because the company did not complete the documentation. On May 17, 2023, the project was denied for this reason. On May 19, 2023, the Board received “the request again,” as stated in the factual background of the resolution of the Environment Delegation that, in August 2024, authorizes the construction of the waste warehouse.
His relative, a technical mining engineer, currently appears as a voluntary technician and states in an email sent to elDiario.es that he started working for MATSA in 2012. “My hiring was on my own merits and was not related to any type of personal relationship. or family. Nor have I been promoted, promoted, nor has my salary increased since a person in my family holds the public responsibilities they refer to.” “I have not had any participation or intervention, in any way, in the tailings management installation project,” he repeats.
According to this calendar, it was already linked to the mining company MATSA before the Australian Sandfire acquired the company in 2021 for 1.5 billion euros. The company had until then been owned by the oil multinational Trafigura and the sovereign investment fund of the United Arab Emirates Mubadala, which entered the company by purchasing 50% of the shares from Trafigura in 2015 for around 400 million euros.
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