Economic, technological and sustainability-based qualifications with reference to Europe: Iberia’s new metal mining projects

In Iberia, if current mining projects are grouped by their geographic and metallogenic characteristics, more important similarities appear among them. These refer to economic conditions, applied innovative technologies, environmental sustainability measures and circular economy patterns. The work uses indicators of these four dimensions to evaluate and qualify mining projects in progress and those still under development with sufficient guarantees of viability. The proposed methodology is oriented towards considering groupings of projects that present an appreciable dynamic towards an incipient or developing district “cluster”. The assessment (classification) refers to the degree of evolution achieved at present and the near future, which facilitates discussion of the conditions of each grouping. The most economically important base metal region, the Iberian Pyritic Belt (IPB), indicates positive conditions for a successful cluster according to the new methodology implemented. The other, formed by technological metal deposits, is still far from achieving this success.