andIlipe Gomees was eager to the fresh air and the calm routine when he and his partner left the chaos of the food serving industry in London due to the covas do Barrrooso hills, the splendid Portuguese agricultural village in which he grew up.
But the rural poet has been annoyed by the drilling miners with wells as they pushed to dig four vast lithium mines next to the village. Excavation has caused resistance from the population who fear that mines will spoil the soil, drain the water and fill the air with thundering from heavy trucks.
“They are destroying everything,” said Gomez, who runs the only cafe in the village with his partner. “They take our peace.”
Kovas de Barroso is among the first villages that caught in Europe’s efforts to its economies. With the continent dismantling fossil fuels that allow air and heats the planet, the demand for lithium rises, to create batteries that can operate electric cars and balance the heavy energy networks.
Throughout Europe, people who live near Lithium deposits seem to be not convinced that mines will bring good functions and are not affected by the calls to stop a greater environmental threat. Attempts to push projects in the face of local resistance were met with “colonial” screams.
In Serbia, the vast areas of society moved to the streets during the past year to protest against the Li -Toms planned to the Wadi Wadi. In France, the Li -Time mine planned under the quarry of Kaolin in Aller warned the divided activists and residents. In Kovas de Barroso, in northern Portugal, people say their village – at the heart of a heritage agricultural area recognized by United Nations It turned into a “sacrifice zone”.
“You are talking about the destruction of an area that has been classified as an important agricultural heritage site, an example of sustainability, and an area with a system of water management of at least 500 years,” said Katarina Alves Scotut, a member of the Unidos Em Defeesa de Barroso (UDCB.) “You will sacrifice all this for open mines. Then you start to ask: for what?”
The answer, for European Union officials and the Portuguese government, is to get a soft white metal required to stop burning fuel that makes the harsh weather greatly – and do this without relying exclusively on foreign suppliers. Europe produces almost any Lithium itself. More than three quarters of raw supply in the world comes from only three countries: Australia, Chile and China. The latter dominates the repeated offer of lithium.
Among the concern about energy security and stampede for more mines at home, the European Commission set a goal last year to meet 10 % of the demand for critical raw materials from local sources by 2030. In March, the planned mine in Kovas as one of 47 strategic metal projects will benefit from “coordinated support”. The decision is challenged by miningwatch PortugalCustomer and UDCB, who filed a complaint with the committee in June.
Environmental concerns about waste and water are not the only factors that have left societies like Kovas cautious from prospectors. Koasi Amboupo, a mineral and mining analyst in Bloombergne, said that the degree of sales has become more difficult through the reputation of the mining industry historically for safety and the lack of skilled local action forces to benefit from work.
He said: “It will be very difficult for the European Union to develop primary sources for lithium locally.” “It is not impossible, but very difficult.”
In Kovas, the long -term struggle between the villagers and miners increased with the growth of political support for the project. The Portuguese Ministry of Environment granted Savannah Resources to the British Mining Company “administrative facilitation” for a year in December that allows it to expect in the land surrounding Covas. The villagers submitted a judicial order that designed the operation, but the ministry quickly allowed the appeal, on the pretext that it was in the public interest.
“No to the mine, yes in life,” says people in the village, where a full banner announces, “No to the mine, yes in life,” they say they are misleading by miners and betraying them by the government. They accuse the infringement of the lands that they do not have – and many of which are complicated in joint ownership – and they reduce the nature and scale of the project. But opinions in the surrounding area of Booticas are mixed, with some hope that the project will enhance the neglected rural economy.
Savana resources refused to comment. The local media has previously told that it is acting within the law and is making efforts to keep people aware. This will lead to the mine that produces enough lithium for half a million EV batteries annually and describes itself as “empowering energy transmission in Europe.”
But resistance on the continent level to extract lithium reveals an obstacle Green groups Mining companies are both hesitant to confess. While investigative studies find widespread general support 80-89 %According to a project conducted by The Guardian and News Rooms all over the world-the infrastructure of a carbon economy bearing bodies that affect societies often be tolerated.
Some residents of Kovas, which is himself It is threatened by forest fires and dehydrationSay they realize tension, even if they consider the costs very large.
“Every village faces a mine will say,” No, no, no, “said Jorge Estevies, a forest worker. “But what differs here is the proximity of our homes.”
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Gomez, the owner of the cafe, said he would also fight a group of oil if someone tried to dig one in Kovas.
“I don’t agree with that either, although I have a car – but this really happens,” he said. “We need to find a solution, but what we are doing now is not a solution.”
Studies have shown that societal shift away from private cars – such as creating functional cities with good public transportation – Reducing height In the demand for lithium, it will also stop the increase in SUVs that need large batteries.
Analysts note that there are also large quantities of lithium in electronic waste such as phones and laptops that are not recycled. For lithium that must be extracted, its harvesting from a saline solution causes less damage to the environment than its mining of rocks.
But with 250 meters of combustion engine cars on the European Union roads, and besides the lack of a lithium, it is produced at home, the fleets of electrical vehicles that are still local sources still mean extracting more abroad. Analysts are afraid that this will significantly happen in areas that place human rights and laws of human rights.
“It is not necessarily a dilemma without a way out, but it is real,” said Thyufrancos, a political scientist at the College of Provence, Zar Kovas and several other mining areas when writing a book on the extraction of lithium.
She added that the mines are likely to face resistance from people when the developers failed to include them in the decision -making process.
She said: “It is not the environmental risks or water risks on its own – if it is not combined with a feeling of exclusion, it will often not cause protests in itself.” “It is the damage to the lack of sound to be able to say something about this damage.”
In the green hills in Kovas, it is unclear whether the most friendly approach by Savanna and the authorities have won people or simply reduced their anger. But the anger in this process is clear.
“The biggest shock was at first not even the impact of the mine,” said Elvis Scott, who grew up in Kovas and moved to London. “It is the attack on democracy, democratic operations, and the rights of the people who live there.”
