The Portuguese territory is geologically diverse, with an enormous diversity of natural resources, such as metallic and non-metallic mineral resources, which are fundamental to various industries and to the country’s economy.

As one of the member states of the European Union (EU), Portugal shares similar objectives with regard to the use of raw materials, energy resources and climate. The energy, ecological and digital transition and the decarbonization of society are common needs for the countries that make up the EU and which inevitably depend on a set of critical and strategic mineral raw materials, for the development of new technologies that contribute to the production of renewable energies, in the development of battery, aerospace and defense industries. Coupled with this dependence, the high risk of supply disruptions, geopolitical tensions and competition make access to these raw materials vital for the European Union.

Strategies such as the Raw Materials Initiative (2008), the Paris Agreement (2015), the European Alliance for Batteries (2017), the European Alliance for Raw Materials (2020) and the European Regulation on Critical Raw Materials (2023) set out a series of objectives with an impact at European and global level by 2030 and 2050. In line with these goals, Portugal has established national policy instruments such as the National Energy and Climate Plan (2021-2030), the Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality 2050 and the future National Energy Storage Strategy.

The European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Regulation has set targets aimed at strengthening European autonomy by ensuring a secure, sustainable and resilient supply of critical and strategic raw materials, defining an internal extraction of 10%, internal processing capacity of 40%, internal recycling capacity of 25% of the EU’s annual consumption and the diversification of imports by 2030, in order to avoid dependence on a third country by more than 65%.

Together with other strategic national entities, EDM is an integral member of the REMPC (European Regulation on Critical Raw Materials) Working Group, created with the purpose of implementing the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Regulation, as an instrument to ensure that national policies and legislation are adapted to the requirements arising from Regulation (EU) 2024/1252.

Since it was founded in 1966, EDM has played a key role in the valorization, prospecting and exploration of mineral resources in Portugal, namely in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, with active participation in the discovery of the Neves-Corvo and Gavião mineral deposits, massive sulphide deposits rich in base metals and high technology. EDM recently carried out important deals, such as the transfer of 15% of area B of the Neves Corvo concession, in 2021, to Somincor, for €3,780,000, and the sale of the Gavião concession to Almina, in 2022, for amounts that could rise to €11,612,571.50, if the deposit comes into production, which is expected by 2028.

Discovered by the Serviço de Fomento Mineiro in 1992, the Lagoa Salgada massive sulphide deposit has been prospected to date by the EDM-Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) consortium, Redcorp, Portex and the Ascendant Resources-Redcorp consortium. On September 13, 2013, a consortium agreement was signed between EDM and Redcorp, with Redcorp accounting for 85% and EDM 15%, for the purpose of submitting a proposal to award the consortium the rights carry out exploration and research works for copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, tin and other metallic ores in the area known as Lagoa Salgada, and the eventual exploitation of the deposits that were identified as commercially viable.

The Lagoa Salgada deposit is subdivided into two main sectors, the northern sector, where the massive sulphides occur with a capping gossan, and the southern sector, with stockwork-type mineralization. In July 2023, Ascendant presented, in its Economic Feasibility Study and in accordance with international standard NI 43-101, a total of 27.56 million tons and mineral reserves of 14.60 million tons, for the metals Cu, Pb, Zn, Au, Ag and Sn (more information at https://www.ascendantresources.com/Home/default.aspx). Throughout this period, technical studies were carried out to analyze the project, at a geological, socio-environmental and economic-financial levels, in order to have more complete information, allowing an integrated view of the project and in turn providing the necessary decision support for EDM to exercise its right of option established in the Consortium Contract, in 2025.

Together with the Turkish company Esanmet, EDM carried out exploration and research projects between 2016 and 2019 in the Alcácer, Monte das Mesas, São Pedro das Cabeças and Rosário areas (2018-2021), with the aim of investigating the presence of polymetallic massive sulphides in the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

In the Central Iberian Zone and belonging to the Segura-Argemela-Panasqueira-Góis metallogenetic belt, where there are important mineralizations and deposits of Sn (Nb, Ta), Li (Sn, Nb and Ta) in aplitopegmatites and Sn-Li, Sn (W), W-Cu (Sn) in quartz veins, EDM prospected an area designated Escádia Grande between 2015 and 2019, focusing its investigation on the former mines of Escádia Grande, Vale Pião and Senhora da Guia. The various mineralizations present are generally veins systems associated with polyphasic Variscan structures.

Between 2012 and 2021, in the Argozelo exploration and research area, EDM investigated several mineral occurrences and former W, Sn, Sb, Au and Ag mines along the Chaves-Miranda do Douro antiform, located in the Galicia – Trás-os-Montes Zone. The investigation works included soil and rock collection campaigns, geophysics (magnetometry, induced polarization, geoelectrics – resistivity and chargeability), geological mapping, trenches, petrography, modelling and drilling, particularly in the sectors adjacent to the old mines of Argozelo, Ribeira and Paredes. The mineral deposits recognized correspond to greisens and quartz veins enriched in Sn and W, and there are also other areas with quartz veins containing Au-Ag-Sb.

The Jales-Gralheira exploration area, near Vila Pouca de Aguiar, includes the old Jales gold mine and the Gralheira structure, also mineralized in gold and silver. The Jales gold deposit, located within a Variscan granite, was explored to a depth of 620 meters along 16 levels of underground galleries. With an approximate length of 1.8 km, the old mine is thought to have produced a total of 2.5 million tons with an average grade of 12 ppm Au and 40 ppm Ag between 1933 and 1992. EDM was involved in the project from 1994 to 1998, in a consortium with the company Cogema, and between 2012 and 2016, together with the company Almada Mining, focusing its prospecting work on the Gralheira structure. The deposit was recognized through surface and sub-surface drilling, from an underground adit along the mineralized structure. The Gralheira sector was the target of 201 drill-holes over a total of 37,203 meters, with a large number of drill-holes in the central zone of the deposit, the lateral extensions of which remain to be investigated in greater detail. In 2008, a report conducted by Wardell Armstrong, in accordance with NI 43-101, defined a total measured and indicated mineral resource of 101,593 oz Au and 446,567 oz Ag and an inferred resource of 147,786 oz Au and 483,621 oz Ag, with a cut-off grade of 3 ppm Au. EDM currently has the most complete database on the Gralheira deposit, the result of a remarkable history of exploration and research in this area, which will be useful for updating the mineral resources of the Gralheira gold and silver deposit and could represent a consortium opportunity in the future public tender, at the initiative of the Portuguese State, for this area.

Between 2011 and 2013, EDM investigated an area designated Pingarela, located in the northwest of Portugal, for platinum group metals (PGM), gold, silver, nickel, cobalt, copper and chromium. The area is part of the Bragança ultrabasic massif and has been mined for chromium in chromite masses. Using soil and rock sampling and detailed mapping, EDM has investigated potential areas for PGM mineralization and associated elements.

EDM is actively seeking to develop new exploration and research projects for mineral resources, individually or in partnership, in Portugal, with a focus on critical raw materials and associated elements.

In addition to this mission, EDM carries out engineering and geoscience studies, seeks to participate in national and international cooperation projects and supports the Portuguese government in technical assistance and strategic intervention related to geological and mining activities.