On Monday, January 27, at the time of the nap, A tornado swept Juan Abad tower. The president of the Diputación de Ciudad Real, Miguel Ángel Valverde, He visited the town the next day and was “impressed”: “It is incredible that, with … The objects of more than 200 kilos that have literally flown and fallen anywhere, do not have to regret human losses ». So recent is the tragedy of the Dana in Valencia, the greatest natural catastrophe in the history of the country, that something like this went unnoticed. Manuel Vélez, however, saw how a science fiction movie wind annihilated 230 of its olive trees and gives thanks because that was all.
A month later, noon on the last Friday of February, Manuel Pisa the land of an olive grove that seems not to end, where a few neighbors of Torrenueva, Santa Cruz de Mudela, Valdepeñas, Castellar de Santiago and more towns in the southeast of the province have gathered to show ABC the landscape that would also be erased from the map if Quantum Mining finally achieved its purpose. The company that presides overJavier Merino, one hundred percent of Spanish capital, says the subsoil of the area keeps a treasure. It is the gray monacite, a mineral with high content of neodymium and praseodimium, fundamental for the permanent magnets of electric motors, wind turbines, mobile phones or small appliances. And he wants to exploit it.
This issue, that of rare earths, has become currently after demanding the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to Ukraine who gives them to them in exchange for the help provided in the war against Russia, but in Ciudad Real the issue has been holding a decade.
«This is a unique, absolutely unique opportunity, for Castilla-La Mancha. What Trump seeks in Ukraine, in Spain we have in Ciudad Real and we are looking the other way, ”says Ángel Colomina, of the Spanish group of strategic/critical raw materials (Gempe/C), a ‘Think Tank’ to which the Quantum Mining Company refers, whose strategy is to stay with a low profile by waiting for events. The group was created in 2021, after a day on raw materials and associated value chains: «We came from the pandemic, the blockade of the Suez channel happened (the bation ‘Ever Given’ remained encaled six days) and there was a reflection in Europe about strategic autonomy. We realized that there was excessive outside dependence, ”they highlight from Gempe.
There are already two projects
Years before, Merino’s company had already presented a first project to exploit the rare earths that would have affected 17,330 hectares of Torre de Juan Abad and Torrenueva. The Board of Castilla-La Mancha dismissed him, Quantum appealed and the Superior Court of Justice of the region knocked him definitively in January 2021 to understand that mining activity would cause insurmountable environmental impacts. The platform yes to the living land was key so that it did not develop. Thousands of residents of the region demonstrated twice to shout to politicians who did not want an open -air mine and seen from balcony.
Not only in Ukraine
The world reserves of rare earths amount to 130 million metric tons, of which a third are in China, which leads the ranking with 44 million tons. Vietnam and Brazil complete the podium, both with 21 million. Russia and Ukraine go behind.
17 chemical elements
Rare earth is the common name of 17 chemical elements: Scandio, Ititrio and the fifteen of the Lantanids Group (Lantano, Cerio, Paseodimio, Neodimio, Prometio, Samario, Europio, Gadolinio, Terbio, Disposio, Holmio, Erbio, Tulio, Iterbio and Luctio).
Essential for industry
Catalysts, electronics, magnets, optics, glass, ceramics and metallurgy. They have endless industrial applications.
And when they believed that it was true that the attached people will never be defeated, Quantum returned to the load. And he put on the table of the Board a second project, called Neodimio, for which they have requested a research permit to evaluate the gray monacite. If completed, almost 9,000 hectares of three municipalities would cover: Torrenueva, Santa Cruz de Mudela and Valdepeñas. “It is a copy and paste from the previous one,” he says Raquel López, spokesman for the platform and neighbor of Castellar de Santiago. «The context of the first project has nothing to do with that of now; It is the day and night, ”Rebate Colomina, of the ‘Think Tank’ of strategic raw materials.
The majority of the population raised in arms before the rare earth eats from the field. Oil, wine, cheese and pistachio, in that order, are the agri -food products that prevail here. Manuel Vélezof Torre de Juan Abad, alert of “radioactive emissions that would circulate through the environment when extracting the mineral, with the risk that this entails.” Miguel de Lamo, from Santa Cruz de Mudela, comments that “a huge amount of water would be needed, which could also be contaminated, farmers are already measured by drought by drought.”
Angel Delgadoof Torrenueva, says that “the soil is a living organism with its own standards and remove it alters the crops.” Meanwhile, Raquel López synthesizes the varied reasons in one: “We do not oppose progress, but there is nothing that can pay our health.” The arguments are denied by the ideas laboratory that defends Quantum. Colomina considers that the neighbors “have been manipulated with images of the mines of Mongolia.”
For their part, the municipalities align at the moment with whom they vote for them. In Torrenueva, the three political groups unanimously agreed a motion of rejection of the company and hung a banner on the consistory facade with the motto: ‘No to the mine, yes to life’. In Santa Cruz de Mudela, the PSOE described it as a “exercise of pure speculation.” And in Valdepeñas, Jesús Martín, who accumulates six legislatures as a socialist mayor, acknowledged first to be open to research in the event that the environment was respected and the added value does not leave anywhere. His team has clarified this newspaper that “he did not say in any case that he was in favor.”
Silence prevails
The Board is the one that has the last word being the competent administration to approve or discard the project. Since November 2022, he has the Quantum file, hence surprising that more than two years have elapsed and the silence continues. «We have to do a very important job of transparency and public information; We are collecting the mandatory reports, ”explains the counselor for sustainable development, Mercedes Gómezwithout giving a date on the resolution. Asked about this type of mining, it replies: “As long as the environmental criteria are fulfilled, and as long as the municipalities are satisfied, we would not have inconvenience.”
Meanwhile, the company was caught last December by the SEPRONA of the Civil Guard taking land and transporting it in trucks to “verify the existence of gray monacita,” according to the civil platform yes to the living land, which asks for an exemplary fine of up to 300,000 euros for the company to lack the corresponding license. Quantum has answered that, in reality, Olivos was planting.
#Neighbors #war #rare #earths #Ciudad #Real
