When Uranium Knocks on your Door
In August 2017, Berkeley Energia, a large energy conglomerate, announced a 120 million USD deal with the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) - the sovereign wealth fund of Oman - to begin exploring the uranium reserves in Retortillo, a small municipality in Salamanca, Western Spain. In 2019, Berkeley announced the discovery of additional tungsten, cobalt, lithium and cobalt reserves.
To realise is vision, Berkeley bought and sealed-off large portions of land and conducted large-scale felling to clear the way for the mines.
This project was reviewed by Paul Lowe, from UAL.
The Yeltes is a small river in Salamanca, Western Spain. It joins the Huebra and leads into the Duero in its way to Portugal leading into the Atlantic Ocean.
Neighbours tell stories about the river, how its waters have been used for healing purposes since the late Roman Empire. Retortillo hosts nowadays one of the largest spa resorts in the region, strengthening an economy that is mainly based on agriculture and cattle.
Since 2017, the town has been at the centre of a large-scale uranium mining project."No mine", spray-painted on the road next to Berkeley's Energia offices in Retortillo.
— Families are divided. Parents want to work the mines; children want to defend our land. They don't speak to each other anymore.
Claims of corruption loom over the project. Neighbours denounce local government employees are being paid-off to secure licenses and fend-off protesters, while several community platforms have been set up to actively oppose the project. One of them, "Stop Uranium", was built by Raquel, a shop-owner concerned about the consequences of the mining project for the local population. Raquel's shop is tended to by her mother, and sits just next to the spa. Both are now threatened by the mining project, which risks polluting the river and forcing the closure of the spa.— Who gives them the right, anyway? Sixty-nine years I've been in this town and look at what they want to do to us. Poison us. Farmers have been working this land for centuries. I've seen the spa grow and the river heal countless people. To hell if I'm going to just sit here and watch that businessman with his shirt and his briefcase and his silly hair take it all away from me.
A graffiti in Retortillo reads "Funeral homes now! The mine is near." In the picture, "Funeral homes now!"
— You spend sixty years working the land, breaking your back, raising your children. And then, uranium guys knocks on your door, offering you thousands for your plots. You either go, or you stay and suffer the consequences.