A new opportunity for metal mining

the reopening of the mine of Aznalcóllar in Seville

Abstract

The study stems from the opinion requested by the General Administration of Mines of the Ministry of Economy of the Regional Government of Andalusia and aims to analyze the technical articulation of the reopening of the Aznalcollar mine through an international competition.

First it is analyzed the situation of research permits affected by the reopening project. The extinction of the requested permits raises two issues: on the one hand, the nature of the expiration of the mining titles that regulates the current Mining Law and, on the other hand, the compensation for damages of the expiration of mining permits.

The system provided by the pre-constitutional Mining Law of 1973 in relation to the concession which is the supporting title for the exploitation of the resources of Section C, is the direct award based on the preference of holders of previous research. Nevertheless, we believe that, to the best guarantee of the general interest, the award procedure should be competitive examination. Since the Mining Law does not provide such possibility, the legal instruments that would allow to legally articulate the competition under the Mining Law are examined: mining reserve (art. 7 LMi) and the statement of non-registrability (art. 39 LMi). Between the two options studied, the Regional Government of Andalusia chose to exercise the reserve, defining and delimiting the “Aznacollar area” and allowing the award of the Mine in a competitive process by the Decree-Law 9/2013, December 17th, which articulates the procedures for the reopening of the Aznacollar mine.

This Decree-Law led to the approach of a constitutional complaint filed by the Government. However, as a result of political negotiations that took place to resolve this crisis, the situation of the Aznalcollar mine was unlocked through two Decree- Laws: the Decree-Law 6/2014, November 11th, which regulates the granting of exploitation of mining resources, and the Decree-Law 4/2014, April 11th, for which the necessary urgent measures are adopted in relation to the process of reopening the Aznalcollar mine.

The study concludes that it cannot be maintained a pre-constitutional legislation to regulate such a complex and of such importance to the economy and employment in our country. It is not permitted by our Constitution and the new model of the Autonomous State.