Court rejects precautionary measure against lithium exploration at Romano mine

The Administrative and Financial Court (TAF) of Mirandela has rejected a precautionary measure submitted by the municipality of Montalegre to prevent lithium exploration at the Romano mine in that municipality, in the Vila Real district.

In a ruling dated Wednesday and consulted by Lusa this Thursday, Mirandela TAF considered the precautionary process to be unfounded and, as a result, rejected the requested precautionary measure.

The Municipality of Montalegre has filed an injunction against the Portuguese Environmental Protection Agency (APA) seeking to suspend the Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) issued by the APA in September 2023, citing the lithium exploration company Lusorecursos Portugal Lithium’s project in this municipality.

In the lawsuit, the municipality argued that the DIA was “creating a clean slate of consequences” by allowing it to proceed with a project whose construction, which would have to begin before the major administrative measures were taken, “would render useless the rights and interests that they were intended to protect.”

However, the judge found that “the DIA permit volume, considered in isolation, does not exist,” citing the fact that the construction stage “still depends, firstly, on the order of compliance of the DIA executive project and, secondly, on the licensing act from the Main Directorate of Energy and Geology.”

The court thus concluded that “periculum in mora” had not been satisfied, one of the necessary requirements for taking precautionary measures, since there was no “reasonable fear of creating a fait accompli or of severe damage to the interests which the applicant seeks to secure in the main proceedings”.

The Romano mine in Montalegre, one of the projects that led to an investigation into alleged favoritism in the lithium business and led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, received a favorable DIA permit in September 2023, subject to an APA that imposed royalty distribution, compensation measures for local populations and the minimization of the harvest of the Iberian wolf.

Montalegre Mayor Fátima Fernández has already stated that she is against this project, which, in her opinion, will not bring anything good to the municipality, pointing to the “very negative” impact on the water of the Alto Rabagán dam, an asset that she considered essential both for public consumption and for feeding animals or irrigating fields.

He also pointed out the need to protect the Iberian wolf, considered it nonsense to “destroy nature in the name of the environment,” and stated that “it cannot be considered normal to evict” people living in the area where the mine will be built.

“And we have a much bigger project, namely the fact that we are a World Agricultural Heritage Site. This is something that can project us into the future, we are sure of it,” the mayor defended.

The Romano mining concession was signed on 28 March 2019 between the General Directorate of Energy and Geology (DGEG) and Lusorecursos Portugal Lithium, a company created three days before the contract was signed.

Lusorecursos has already said it intends to begin exploration in 2027.