Overview

• The Xunta de Galicia has released over 8,700 pages of exploitation, environmental impact and restoration documents and opened a one-month window for public objections and suggestions.
• Declared strategic by the European Commission in January, the Doade project plans a 42-year underground operation to extract 17.3 million tonnes of ore and produce 93,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate annually.
• Recursos Minerales de Galicia has invested €10 million so far and foresees a total €120 million outlay, targeting a net present value near €912 million and 320 direct and indirect jobs.
• Local groups such as SOS Suído Seixo, Sindicato Labrego Galego and Ecoloxistas en Acción Galiza threaten legal appeals over potential groundwater disruption, acid-mine drainage risks and perceived lack of transparency.
• The redesigned plan cuts mining-grid coverage from 60 to 17 units, employs cut-and-fill extraction and a closed-circuit water treatment system developed with University of A Coruña researchers.