© Jingming Pan – Unsplash
The Limousin countryside, the new Eldorado for gold miners? In recent years, several exclusive research permits have been issued by the Ministry of the Economy in the region to mining companies ;#8217;mining, explain our colleagues from Le Monde. The latest, published in the Official Journal last February, concerns an area of 39.19 km2 located straddling the departments of Dordogne and Haute-Vienne.
In this case, this permit was issued to Aurelius Resources, the French subsidiary of the British operator Aurelius Resources, which will have the right to search for gold, silver, lithium and many other rare metals that are often used in the manufacture of smartphones, computers and other electronic components.
In this area, Areva extracted no less than 25 tonnes of precious metals between 1988 and 2002. Since then, the mine has remained abandoned. However, the subsoil of this area could conceal “tens of tons of gold”, according to the geologist Thomas Poitrenaud cited by our colleagues from L’internaute who take up a article from Le Figaro. This region was exploited in Antiquity for its metals.
If the potential for wealth is very real, environmental associations are worried about this new gold rush. This is the case, for example, of the Stop Mines 87 association which expressed fears about the irreversible pollution of sites and the insufficient management of pollutants by operators. In addition, the impact on the region's water resources for such an activity is a major concern – and legitimate.
While China, the United States and Australia no longer hesitate to limit exports of certain precious metals, France – and more generally Europe – wishes to reduce its dependence on these countries by itself developing solutions for the exploitation and supply of these natural resources. Hence these numerous research permits.
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