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Location
Gouveia (Municipality)
Investment
2,237,370 €
2017 - 2018

Environmental Remediation of the Castelejo Mining Area

Concluded

The former mining area of Castelejo is located around 2 Km from Vila Cortês da Serra, in the municipality of Gouveia, district of Guarda.

It was mined for uranium ore at two open sites from 1977 to 1990 by Empresa Nacional de Urânio, EP (ENU), and around 103,578 tons of ore were extracted with an average U3O8 content of 0.12%, which produced 132,327 kg of U3O8. The stripping ratio was 1 to 10.

Currently, in addition to the two, partially flooded, open pits, there is a decommissioned Mining Water Treatment Plant (MWTP), 12 spoil heaps for the disposal of mining waste covering an area of around 81,000 m² and a total volume of around 880,000 m³, consisting of tailings and poor ores.

The services to be carried out consist of the following main activities:

  • Filling of one of the existing pits in the mining area of Castelejo with materials from the surrounding spoil heaps, including confined disposal of materials from other mining areas;
  • Earthmoving consisting essentially of loading, transport, spreading and compacting inside the pit. The total volume of material to be transported to the confined disposal site to be created inside the pit is around 350,000 cubic metres, plus approximately 90,000 cubic metres of other materials from the remaining mining areas;
  • Confinement of the disposal site after moisture proofing, sealing and restoration of the landscape;
  • Maintenance of the water surface in the second pit, at the south end, and recovery of the landscape across the entire area;
  • Construction of fishing and observation platforms.

The investment is co-financed by the Cohesion Fund and will allow the environmental liabilities resulting from mining at this location to be resolved, bringing benefits to local populations through the improvement of current conditions and use of the areas reclaimed for other ends.

  • Vista após recuperação ambiental (final view)

  • Vista final das escombreiras

  • Vista final do céu aberto

  • Vista final da bacia de jusante e sistema de drenagem

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