Companies in the mining sector have presented projects to the Andalusian Government that foresee investments of 3,325 million euros for the coming years, according to the Minister of Economic Transformation, Rogelio Velasco. New farms, sustainability and digital transformation will be the destination of the money. The counselor has provided these data in the presentation of the IV Minerals and Mining Hall, MMH, which will be held in Seville from October 18 to 20, 2022 and which faces the challenges of internationalization and its transformation to meet the challenges of the Agenda 2030.
Velasco has underlined that his department has granted during 2021 the authorization to three large works and projects of Minas Cobre las Cruces, Minas de Riotinto and Minas Alquife in the mining provinces of Huelva, Seville and Granada.
These initiatives will be joined by two other proposals that are in the approval phase, so that the five mining projects will imply, once they start their activity, the creation of more than 4,000 jobs. Likewise, he assured that this event “will contribute to reinforce the leadership position enjoyed by Andalusian mining in the whole of Spain and consolidate it as a benchmark in innovation and technological development at an international level, taking into account its ability to attract foreign investment” .
Velasco stressed that Andalusian mining “is an emerging sector, growing at double digits and with a great capacity to drag and generate employment.” Currently, mining in the community represents 40% of the Gross Added Value of the sector in Spain and 27.5% of employment. Especially buoyant is the Andalusian metal mining, strong in the western part of the region, with 90% of the national total in Gross Value Added and that generates 10,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs, and that has generated exports between January and September of 1,100 million of euros. Australian, Canadian and US mining groups have interests in this sector.
To channel this private investment, the Board will shortly bring to the Governing Council a Sustainable Mining Strategy 2030 plan, to “sustainably promote a sector that is no longer what it was half a century ago.
The strategy is based on pillars such as digital and telematic transformation, administrative simplification, coordination between administrations, support for employment and the attraction of international companies.
Javier Targhetta, curator of the Minerals and Mining Hall, has referred to the essential nature of mining “in this world in continuous transformation and in which we are seeing changes accelerate with the post-Covid recovery” and the leading role of the sector , in this global change that comes hand in hand with the energy transition, electrification and digitization of the economy and more generally, of our lives “.
In this sense, he stressed that, in the next two decades, the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable ones will continue and the electrification of transport and homes and digitalization will develop and all these phenomena are already increasing the demand for metals and minerals. such as copper, zinc, aluminum, steel, stainless steel, tin, lithium, nickel, cobalt and the so-called rare earths, as well as all kinds of industrial rocks, gypsum, lime, limestone, aggregates, marble, potash , magnesite, cement, ceramics and glass, etc., and without forgetting water, all essential for the developments in which humanity is already immersed.
“The new global trends will require in the future an accumulated consumption of raw materials of which Europe is in deficit in absolute terms, but much more in terms of comparison with the other major economies of the world, such as the US and China, with the that it has to compete for its supply “, he stressed. Faced with this, it has vindicated the mining that takes place in Andalusia and other areas of Spain and the rest of Europe, “a responsible activity, committed to the environment and sustainability and with large reserves still to be explored and exploited”.
“It is necessary for Seville to become in 2022 that meeting point of the sector, companies and institutions, which allow progress to consolidate our autonomy, guaranteeing the supply of raw materials, improving the circularity and efficiency of resources and promoting the responsible supply of minerals around the world “, Javier Targhetta has reaffirmed.
For his part, the mayor of Seville, Juan Espadas, has offered the maximum support of the Seville City Council to this fourth edition of the MMH congress that will be held coinciding with the boost that is being given to the European Union to the ecological, energy and digital, a process that requires raw materials and, therefore, mining. “This fact positions even better if possible a regional mining that is already strategic for Andalusia and that the Andalusian economy must know how to take advantage of”, he explained.
For Espadas, the October 2022 congress should be not only the one to consolidate this business and professional event, but also to become the “international showcase of the best management of mining activity from the point of view of sustainability, of the security, of risk prevention and of the technological vanguard “, as it has added. The first mayor of Seville, likewise, has considered that this role of mining in the ecological, energy and digital transition and its relevance for the economy and employment in Andalusia requires a public-private alliance and the support of public administrations. “At the MMH congress we will all go together,” he concluded.
Aminer and Fibes
Organized by the Association of Research, Extraction, Mining and Metallurgical Transformers, Auxiliary and Service Companies (AMINER) and the Seville Conference and Exhibition Center (FIBES), “the MMH Seville is, without a doubt, a great mining event and the industry of the XXI century “, has emphasized Targhetta. In this sense, he recalled the balance of the MMH 2019, which received more than 10,000 visits and the participation of nearly 150 companies in the exhibition area, as well as a first-rate scientific program with more than 70 expert speakers in a wide variety of subjects.
“In this edition we have proposed a new goal: we want to attract sectorial assemblies and meetings of national and international institutions related to mining and complementary industrial activities that can be held in the city in the days before and after the Fair, thus creating synergies with other forums and reinforcing the role of the MMH as a meeting point for the industrial and raw materials sector “, he defended.
Targhetta has referred to two factors that allow us to predict the success of the exhibition, since “we have the support of the large companies that operate in Andalusia, which are a world reference, an example of innovation, safety and good practices”. In addition, he has highlighted “the setting” in which it takes place: “Andalusia, a region that, under normal conditions, receives as many visitors annually as Brazil and Argentina together, and Seville, a city that is as visited as Saint Petersburg, San Francisco or Vancouver “.
As in previous editions, the MMH will have a large exhibition area that will occupy the main pavilions of Fibes and the parallel development of a program with conferences and round tables that will become an opportunity for networking in which institutions, companies, centers institutions, universities and experts will value shared experience, knowledge and the latest advances in the field of mining and related industries, with a clear focus on innovation, sustainability, energy transition, safety and technological development.
Javier Targhetta has advanced that more than fifty companies from all over the world have already confirmed their presence in the MMH 2022, while Rafael Miranda, an industrial engineer with a long business career who has occupied the top positions, is already working at the head of the scientific committee executives at Endesa and Acerinox, among others, and is a member of national and international boards of directors.
The MMH 2022 will bring together companies and experts in Seville who will highlight the latest developments and trends in the sector, in a space focused on technological innovation, sustainability and the essential nature of mining activity.
An ideal occasion to present active mining operations to society, world references for being cutting-edge in technology and respectful of the environment; as well as the wide range of related industries, such as metallurgy, steel, construction industries, energy, water management, all incorporating innovation and sustainability. All these activities, many of them being world references, are present in Andalusia in a very important way, and increasingly contribute to the socioeconomic development of the community.
