en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Spanish government recently designated a national reserved mining area named "Morille" in the province of Salamanca, aimed at concentrating exploration of EU critical raw materials such as tin, tungsten, and lithium, in order to reduce dependence on external supply during the energy transition and digitalization process.
The Morille mining area covers 9,293 mining grids and is located in the core geological zone of the Iberian Massif (Macizo Ibérico). Mining grids are administrative units in Spain that define mineral exploration and extraction rights, with a single grid traditionally covering approximately 30 hectares (0.3 square kilometers). The total area of this mining zone is about 2,800 square kilometers, larger than the province of Biscay (Vizcaya) and more than five times the size of the island of Ibiza.
Exploration and research work in this mining area will be jointly undertaken by the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute (IGME) and Hunosa, with a minimum period set at three years. The research focuses on high-strategic-value minerals such as tin, tungsten, niobium, tantalum, lithium, beryllium, and molybdenum, all of which are classified by the EU as critical raw materials with high supply risk and industrial importance.
According to the timeline, the two institutions will first carry out engineering and geological project planning in 2026, along with supporting environmental remediation plans. Field operations can only commence after approval from Spanish ministries. The research will then employ various advanced techniques, including geophysical flights, rock and stream water geochemical surveys, surface sampling, trenching, and drilling. Additionally, the project will assess the feasibility of recovering critical raw materials from historical mining waste, in line with the EU's circular economy strategy.
The "national reserved mining area" is a special system under Spain's mining law, referring to zones directly protected and managed by the state due to strategic, economic, or social interests. Management rights can be assigned to public institutions or awarded to companies through tenders. Currently, there are very few such reserved mining areas in Spain, including the "Agua Blanca" mining area in Badajoz, focused on nickel and copper, and the "Pinoso" mining area in Alicante, which extracts rock salt.
The establishment of the Morille mining area reinforces the key position of the Salamanca region in Spain's national resource strategy. This initiative aims to ensure autonomous supply of critical raw materials such as lithium (essential for batteries) and tantalum (essential for electronic components), thereby enhancing Spain's industrial sovereignty and supply chain security in the context of international resource competition.
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