Government cancels Moncorvo mining concession with UK’s Aethel Mining

Portugal’s government has ripped up an iron ore mining concession granted to the UK’s Aethel Mining for mines at Torre de Moncorvo near Braganza.

It said it withdrew the concession over “failing to meet legal and contractual obligations”.

The British mining company, whose Portugal operations are held by Portuguese entrepreneur Ricardo Santos Silva and US businessman Aba Schubert, says it will “exercise its rights”.

A warning signed by the director-general of the Directorate-General of Energy and Geology (DGEG), Paulo Carmona was published on Friday in the Portuguese State circular Diário da República, made the decision public.

It announced “the cancellation of the contract” on the initiative of the State for “legal and contractual non-compliance.”

The order was given in a dispatch signed on February 11 by the new Secretary of State for Energy, Jean Barroca.

The 30-year contract had been signed in November 2016 at the time with MTI – Ferro de Moncorvo with a possible extension to 2076.

Aethel Mining is a private multinational technology-based mining company.  Aethel Mining operated the iron ore concession in Torre de Moncorvo, Portugal.  This asset is the second largest iron deposit in Europe and was Aethel Mining’s most important resource.

Aethel Mining Portugal, SA (previously MTI – Ferro de Moncorvo, S.A.) began its exploration activity in Portugal in 2005, and its operations in Moncorvo commenced in 2020.

Moncorvo’s iron deposits have been the subject of primitive exploitation since the Iron Age, with industrialised mining activity beginning in the 1790s.  From 1957, consolidated operations began to be managed by the Thyssen group, under the banner of Minacorvo, Lda.  Following the Portuguese revolution in 1974,  Minacorvo was dissolved and its concessions were integrated into Ferrominas SARL and later Ferrominas EP.

In the Moncorvo iron concession, 558 million tons of proven and probable reserves and 254 million tons of possible reserves have been identified.

Aethel Mining’s concession is located in the Douro basin between Torre de Moncorvo and Carviçais, in Serra do Reboredo and Cabeço da Mua. The company has offices in London and Portugal.