Mapa do Minério, Continental Portugal 2013-2023

LEGEND

Exploration request

Exploration concession

Exploitation request

Exploitation concession

Lithium Exploration Program

Miscellaneous

National network of protected areas (RNAP)

⚠️ Possible confirmation bias

The vast areas mapped naturally coincide with phenomena that also affect large areas of the territory, such as forest fires. To date, we are not aware of any direct causal relationship between these phenomena and extractive industry activities, nor of any statistical studies that suggest a correlation beyond mere coincidence. — September 17th 2024

The present map, focussing on continental Portugal and on the timespan between 2013 and 2024, shows areas extracted from the official gazette Diário da República (DR), where requests and concessions of the mining sector are divulged to the public in a table format. Just select an area to get its details and references to the legal document. In exceptional cases, e.g. when there is no DR record available yet, also other official sources like the repositories of DGEG are considered.

Furthermore, the map shows the areas of the auction of lithium exploration concessions announced by the government since 2017, which were elaborated by the mining authority Direcção Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG) between 2018 and 2022. These "six possible areas for public auction" were last published in February 2022 in a low-resolution presentation by the national mining authority DGEG. Previous map versions identified much larger areas: the 2017 Lithium Working Group proposals with a map from the Geological Survey LNEG, 2019 maps released after a parliamentary question by the 'Os Verdes' party in February 2020, and a Shapefile version released during a public consultation in September 2021.

Considering the areas published in DR, all kinds of publication types (requests for exploration, concession contracts, etc.) and minerals (from arsenic to zinc, including lithium, but also aggregates like clay or sand) have been included.

This map is also available in Portuguese 🇵🇹 and German 🇩🇪.

AREAS OF INTEREST

Lithium exploration program (public tender)

Selection of project proposals

Mina do Barroso (Savannah Resources)
Mina do Romano (Lusorecursos)
Argemela (PANNN Consultores de Geociências, Lda.)
Mina de Alvarrões (Carolinos, Felmica, Grupo MCS Mota)

CHANGELOG
10^th version, 9.3.2023
Update of the areas of the Portuguese Government's Lithium Exploration Programme announced since 2017. Reduction of areas after public consultation and update by the mining authority DGEG. Reduced accuracy of +-300m, as the data was only provided as low resolution raster maps even after request.

9^th version, 5.10.2021
Lithium Exploration Program areas updated based on the areas published during the public consultation running from 28-09-2021 to 10-11-2021. New section "areas of interest" and category filters to improve map navigation.

8^th version, 11.2.2020
Oficial areas of DGEG for the Li public tender.

7^th version, 17.10.2019
DR publications between 1/2013 - 17/10/2019.

6^th version, 12.7.2019
German language.

5^th version, 24.6.2019
DR publications between 1/2013 - 24/6/2019. English edition. Inclusion of the concession C-100 (CC-DM-032) "Mina do Barroso", published in DR 131/2006 10.7.2006.

4^th version, 7.6.2019
DR publications between 1/2013 - 7/6/2019. Correct representation of the 'exclusion zones' in the polygons. Optional mode for satellite imagery e minor UI treaks.

3^th version, 24.5.2019
DR publications between 1/2013 - 24/5/2019. Added polygon surface in km² (calculated independent from the value published in the DR).

2^th version, 13.5.2019
DR publications between 1/2016 - 5/2019.

Initial release, 13.5.2019
DR publications between 1/2017 - 5/2019.

DISCLAIMER
For technical reasons the data extracted from DR (dre.pt) may contain errors. Automated processing was done with care, but obviously I cannot assume any responsibility for the data's correctness. If you find any errors in the data or bugs please get in touch at nik@nik-voelker.com. The coordinates in the publications of DR have been transformed from the national coordinate systems to WGS 84 by using PROJ.4 library, using the geospatial references available on spatialreference.org.

OPEN SOURCE
This project and the included geoJSON/KMZ files are published as open source, under the ISC license referenced below. You are free to pull them from the GitHub repository to derive your own data or representations.

Data as geoJSON file

Data as KMZ for Google Earth

Lithium exploration tender areas as geoJSON file

Lithium exploration tender areas as KMZ file for Google Earth (2022)

Copyright 2019-2024, Nik Völker

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this data for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE DATA IS PROVIDED 'AS IS' AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS DATA INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS DATA.