Last weekend, the Libertad Digital newspaper published a report on the Strategic Minerals Europe Penouta Project, highlighting its threefold sustainability pledge at economic, social and environmental levels.

On an economic level because the Penouta Mine has a major impact on Spanish and European markets due to the scarcity of critical minerals in Europe, making Strategic Minerals presently the only tantalum and niobium mining producer in Spain and Europe and, furthermore, in a conflict-free area. On a social level because it generates direct and indirect employment in the immediate vicinity of the mine, which has contributed to the fact that the relaunch of work at the mine has been very well received by the local community since it was resumed in 2017.

On an environmental level because the Penouta Project bases its activity on sustainable mining, which means that waste from former mining operations is reused to create economic, environmental and social gains within the framework of the circular economy – a practice also implemented with the current use of the resources from Section C. In addition, the aim is to make full use of the minerals and reuse mining waste, with the goal of recovering around 85% in order to, in turn, minimise the percentage going to landfill to around 15%. The minerals are extracted through a wet gravimetric process, using water-based density separation, thus obtaining the concentration of metallic minerals. These processes eliminate the need to use chemical products and prevent the generation of waste that is harmful to the environment.

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