Torre de Moncorvo, Portugal, April 7, 2025 (Lusa) - Aethel Mining Portugal will appeal to the courts against the government's decision to annul the concession contract for iron ore mining in Torre de Moncorvo, an official source from the company told Lusa on Monday.
"Aethel Mining has learnt [of the government's decision] and does not agree and will exercise its rights in the courts," an official source from the mining company owned by Ricardo Santos Silva and the US company Aba Schubert told Lusa.
The government cancelled the concession contract for the exploitation of iron ore deposits in Torre de Moncorvo in the district of Bragança, awarded to Aethel Mining Portugal, S. A, according to a notice published in the Diário da República on Friday.
In the notice signed by the Director General of Energy and Geology, Paulo Carmona, "the termination of the contract at the initiative of the State is made public on the grounds of non-compliance with legal and contractual obligations, as determined by Order No. 2/SEEN/2025, of 11 March 2025, of the Secretary of State for Energy".
Jornal de Negócios quoted an official source from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy who said that "throughout this process, the state has always sought solutions that would make the project viable. However, due to the failure to fulfil the obligations set out in the law and in the contract, which dates back to 2016, the state was forced to terminate the contract".
On 12 February, the mining company Aethel Mining told Lusa about a "strategic reassessment" of the project at the Torre de Moncorvo mines, reaffirming its "unwavering commitment" to it and denied the possibility of a sale.
"Although the operation is not running at full capacity, the company is carrying out a continuous strategic reassessment to ensure that the project is moving forward in a sustainable manner and in line with the new needs of the global mining sector," an official source from the company explained at the time.
Aethel even expressed its intention to "reinforce and expand activity" at the mine, after the Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG) noted a lack of plans and operational activity.
On 31 January, an official DGEG source told Lusa that "the concessionaire has not carried out any operational activities in the concession area and no exploration or other activities have been approved, since the Work Programme for 2025 has not been submitted".
Lusa also noted on site that since the end of September, there has been no activity or movement in the concession area that began operating in March 2020 at the Mua site.
"Aethel Mining is aware of this new reality and has been analysing different scenarios to ensure that the Moncorvo mine will be a competitive asset in the long term," it said, noting that it has been “actively working with regulators, industry experts and strategic partners to identify solutions to recover and expand the project”.
The concessionaire of the Moncorvo mines began extracting 2,000 tonnes per day of certified high-density iron aggregate from the Mua deposit on 13 October 2021, the concessionaire estimated.
The mining project located at the head of Mua, in Torre de Moncorvo, was resumed on 13 March 2020, after 38 years of abandonment. An investment of €550 million over the next 60 years is planned.
In the 1950s, the Torre de Moncorvo iron ore mines were the region's largest employer, employing up to 1,500 miners.
Mining was suspended in 1983 with the bankruptcy of Ferrominas.
FYP/ADB // ADB.
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