In a statement, Quercus says it subscribes to "the unfavourable opinion of MiningWatch Portugal, a project of the Natural Resources Observatory Association (ORN), according to which the documentation provided is insufficient, outdated, and fragmented for the Water and Waste Services Regulatory Authority (ERSAR) to rigorously assess the risks and environmental liabilities."

For the process to move forward, Quercus demands "the resolution of the environmental liabilities accumulated over more than a century of mining in Panasqueira," located in the municipalities of Covilhã and Fundão, in the district of Castelo Branco.

Quercus also demands an assessment of the risk to water quality and to the populations. “This issue goes beyond the local Panasqueira basin, since the Ribeira do Bodelhão is the same watercourse that feeds the Castelo de Bode reservoir, the main source of water captured and treated by EPAL for human consumption in Lisbon and in about 20 municipalities in the Metropolitan Area and the West,” it emphasises.

“It is unacceptable that an environmental license be renewed without a current, complete and independent assessment of these impacts, nor without a concrete, programmed, financially guaranteed and monitorable closure and recovery plan,” it adds.

The environmental association insists on strengthening environmental monitoring and oversight by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), the Water and Waste Services Regulatory Authority (ERSAR) and the General Inspectorate of Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning (IGAMAOT).

Regarding the procedure for reviewing the environmental license for the mines, proposed by Beralt Tin & Wolfram (Portugal), the company told the Lusa news agency that it is “a mere administrative, bureaucratic procedure, simply because the current license was expiring.”

“There have been no other changes in the operation of the mine, because when there are, they are also communicated to the competent authorities,” it concluded.