Assignment: The village versus the mine

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

A village in northern Portugal is fighting to prevent what could be the first large scale battery grade lithium mine in Europe from going into operation on its doorstep. For Assignment, Caroline Bayley travels to Covas do Barroso - the remote farming community with World Agricultural Heritage status and a tiny population - where villagers have formed a protest group which has gained international support. Portugal has one of the largest deposits of lithium in Europe and the Government is in favour of exploiting these resources as part of the green transition as lithium is used in electric vehicle batteries. The mining company needs to lease common land jointly owned by the villagers to access the lithium but the residents are holding out against this, in spite of the compensation on offer. They fear that the four open pit mines would destroy their agricultural way of life. The Barroso mine has been given the green light by Portugal’s environment agency subject to certain strict criteria being met. Owned by Savannah Resources, a London listed company, the mine aims to produce enough lithium for 500,000 electric car batteries a year. Produced and presented by Caroline Bayley Producer in Portugal Alison Roberts Editor: Penny Murphy Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill Production Coordinator: Gemma Ashman (Image: Aida Fernandes, farmer in Covas do Barroso. Credit: BBC/Caroline Bayley)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Amazing sports stories coming soon to the BBC World Service. Nothing is ever quite as
0:06.0	expected. Yep, it's wild. Search for amazing sports stories wherever you get your BBC
0:11.6	podcasts. Let's do this. Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
0:19.0	Thanks for choosing to listen to assignment on the documentary podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:24.9	I'm Caroline Bailey and in this episode I'm reporting from Northern Portugal where an ancient
0:30.8	farming village is fighting plans for a large open-cast lithium mine right on its doorstep.
0:37.6	The lithium mine would be enough for 500,000 electric car batteries a year which are needed for
0:44.0	the energy transition away from fossil fuels. But the villagers say it would destroy their
0:50.1	environment an agricultural way of life which has existed for generations.
1:00.1	So here's another notice big banner saying no to the mine.
1:06.0	We're looking out over the valley. See where this electric line is. Yep, if you look past that to
1:15.2	just below it, there's no way you can see some bits that don't have trees on it. Yes,
1:20.5	that is the part which would be the centre of the mine where they would be digging.
1:24.1	Right, right, and it doesn't look very far away at all.
1:30.1	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Caroline Bailey and on assignment
1:36.1	I've come to Northern Portugal to a beautiful ancient agricultural village up in the mountains.
1:42.9	But this is the front line of a battle between local people and plans for a new lithium mine.
1:51.3	The lithium would be used for batteries for electric vehicles, but here they say it would
1:56.9	destroy their way of life. I was born here, grew up here, got married here, and I'm still here.
2:06.2	Elizabeth Purish tells us. He's pointing out to my translator, Alison and me, where the mine would
2:12.0	start, just over 500 metres from the end of her garden. She's desperately worried about plans for
2:18.5	four open-casts pits across the valley, which is the Bohorsol lithium project right on the edge of
	...

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