A Gudiña, Spain, July 23, 2026 (Lusa) - Around 40 Portuguese and Spanish environmentalists and local councillors from the municipality of Vinhais are protesting today in A Gudiña, in Galicia, Spain, against the mine near the border with Portugal, fearing a serious public health problem.

A tungsten mine in Pentes, in the municipality of A Gudiña, two kilometres from the Montesinho Natural Park and the municipality of Vinhais, is causing concern amongst Portuguese local councillors and environmentalists, who fear contamination of the River Rabaçal, which supplies 14 villages.

According to João Vila, mayor of the parish council of Edral, one of the villages in the municipality of Vinhais, in the district of Bragança, which is supplied by the River Rabaçal, many people are no longer drinking the water supplied to the village, preferring to go to the old springs out of fear of what is happening.

«The water we drink, which is supplied to our parish councils, comes from just 100 to 200 metres from the river. This is a threat to those living here now and to those who will come after us,» reiterated António Barreira, chairman of the Vilar Seco de Lomba parish council.

The local councillors complain that they were never informed about the mining operation.

«It's simply strange that Spain hasn't communicated this to Portugal, to the Ministry of the Environment, or to the government, [which] is unaware of this – it's not normal,» criticised Manuel Borges, treasurer of the Union of Parishes of Quirás and Pinheiro Novo, which has four villages supplied by the river.

The Movimento Uivo has been raising the alarm about this mining operation, which will mainly affect Portuguese territory.

«The worst thing of all is that the Portuguese authorities were not notified,» said António Sá, a member of the movement.

Also at issue is the lack of a cross-border environmental impact assessment, which was neither requested nor required by law.

The government has already acknowledged that it has not received any request for an opinion from Spain.

«Spain isn't suffering at all. Spain has absolutely no reason to suffer. I'd like to see what they'd do if the situation were the other way round,» said the mayor of Vilar Seco de Lomba, indignantly.

Members of the Galician organisation ‘Ecoloxistas en Acción' were also present at the protest: «It is causing a diplomatic rift between the two countries (...) mining is a matter for the autonomous regions, in this case the Galician government, and what is happening is that the government in Madrid is telling the Galician government that there should have been this cross-border consultation with Portugal, but this never took place, and so we have an internal conflict between the Madrid government and the Galician government, which is causing problems», emphasised environmentalist Juan Evans.

The environmentalists and local councillors present at the rally handed a letter to the mayor of A Gudiña in person, setting out their concerns.

The European Commission has highlighted the need for a cross-border environmental impact assessment, which has not yet been conducted, for the tungsten mining operation in A Gudiña, scheduled to begin this year.

The project has been the subject of numerous objections from organisations and bodies due to its proximity to the Portuguese border, as it is situated two kilometres from Vinhais.

This tungsten mining operation in the province of Ourense is expected to commence in the fourth quarter of this year and will be carried out by Tungsten San Juan, the Galician subsidiary of Eurobattery Minerals. Earthworks have already been carried out in recent months.

ANYP/ADB // ADB.

Lusa