The reopening of a controversial mine in Andalusia which caused a massive ecological disaster has been put on hold by a judge due to allegations of corruption.
The Los Frailes mine, outside of Aznacollar and west of Seville, was closed 17 years ago after a residue dam burst in April 1998. Acidic sludge with dangerous levels of heavy metals poured into the River Guadiamar, which is the main water source for the Doñana National Park.
Doñana’s landscape suffered scarring over some 30 kilometres, with rare plant and wildlife destroyed. The Unesco World Heritage Site is one of Europe’s largest national parks.
The so-called Doñana Disaster was one of the worst ecological catastrophes in Spain. The clean-up operation cost €240 million.
The mine still has quantities of extractable copper, zinc and lead. It was due to start work again for the first time until a judicial investigation found evidence of corruption in the bidding process.
Grupo México-Minorbis was awarded the contract but rival bidder Emerita Resources filed a complaint in court accusing the group of conducting illegal negotiations.
Additional allegations included bribery, influence peddling and the perversion of justice.
The judge in charge of the investigation noted that evidence exists to support all of the allegations.
Judge Patricia Fernández Franco criticised the regional authorities for awarding the contract “without the slightest rigour, despite the mine having previously caused one of Spain’s worst ecological disasters.”
She also demanded to know why the conglomerate had not been disqualified from the selection process after failing to comply with basic environmental requirements.
She has ordered a number of officials involved to be interviewed by anti-fraud police, including the director of the ministry of economics, María José Asencio.
The regional government defended those involved and insisted that the process had been transparent.
“The public officials acted with absolute honesty, full independence of judgement away from external influences and made their decision in accordance with the law,” read a statement.
