EDM – Empresa de Desenvolvimento Mineiro, SA has launched a tendering procedure for the first phase of environmental rehabilitation works at S. Domingos mine. It is a project involving a total investment of around 20 million euros.

During the event, held in Mértola, a partnership agreement was also signed between EDM and the municipality of Mértola regarding use of the cultural, tourism, geological and mining potential of S. Domingos.

The public session was attended by the Secretary of State for Energy, Jorge Seguro Sanches, who presided over the acts. The mining area of S. Domingos, in the municipality of Mértola, was mined for copper and sulphur for the production of sulphuric acid, alongside by-products such as lead, nickel, cobalt, gold, silver, cadmium, arsenic, antimony and tin.

Considered for many years the largest Portuguese mine, it was decommissioned in 1966, following the depletion of reserves, leaving environmental liabilities consisting of spoil heaps, acid water, industrial ruins and damage to the landscape.

EDM will now undertake the essential works for the environmental recovery of this mining area in stages, supported by appropriate, high quality technical projects, which could promote a new era of economic, social and cultural development, which national and local authorities wish to launch this territory. This first stage of the works should cost around four million euros and is expected to last 14 months.

The intervention of EDM takes place under the concession contract awarded by the State, on an exclusive basis, for the environmental rehabilitation of degraded mining areas (DL 198-A/2001-6/7), and a significant part of the works will be funded by European structural investment funds, by means of an application approved by the sustainability operational programme and the efficient use of resources (POSEUR).