A shuttered mine in the hills of inland Galicia is a step closer to becoming the EU's only domestic primary source of tantalum and niobium - strategic metals the bloc today imports almost in their entirety - after ASX-listed Energy Transition Minerals (ETM) on Wednesday secured the final regional approval needed to take it over.

The regional government of Xunta de Galicia has authorised the transfer of the Section C mining concession at the Penouta mine, in the municipality of Viana do Bolo, Ourense, to ETM's Spanish subsidiary.

The resolution formally recognises the company as the incoming holder of the mining rights and is the last regional step in its rescue of the project from the insolvency of the previous operator, Strategic Minerals Spain, which collapsed in 2024 and stopped production that October.

Europe mines almost none of the metals that Penouta yields. The overwhelming majority of the world's niobium comes from a single country, Brazil, while most tantalum is mined in central Africa, chiefly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, where traceability and responsible-sourcing standards are hard to assure. 

In turn, processing of critical minerals more broadly is dominated by China.

Tantalum and niobium are both designated critical raw materials by the EU, and all three of Penouta's metals appear on the critical minerals lists of the US and Australia. They are foundational to semiconductors and capacitors, high-performance aerospace and defence alloys, and energy-transition technologies. This while tantalum prices have run to multi-decade highs following supply disruption in central Africa.

A revived Penouta mine would give Europe a transparent, locally regulated and traceable source of supply on its own soil - the kind of domestic capacity the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act was written to build.

The Act aims to cut the bloc's dependence on any single foreign supplier, setting a target that no more than 65% of the EU's yearly demand for a strategic raw material should come from one third country, and pushing to rebuild extraction and processing within Europe by 2030.

ETM says Penouta is a concrete, near-term test of whether that ambition can be realised.

For Ourense, the approval holds out the prospect of fresh investment and skilled employment in an inland comarca long marked by depopulation.

ETM intends to bring the mine back into production responsibly, to retain experienced local personnel and to prioritise local hiring and economic participation.

Unlike a greenfield discovery, Penouta is a known quantity: it operated as recently as 2024 and retains its openpit mine, a processing plant tailored to its ore and supporting infrastructure - the remnants of a historic investment of around €28-million - offering a comparatively fast and lower-risk path back to actual output rather than supply on paper.

The company has already signed a memorandum of understanding with commodity trader and merchant Traxys for the offtake of concentrate from the mine, marking a signal of the demand for a secure European source of these materials.

NEXT STEPS

The transfer is granted subject to the resolution of an outstanding appeal before the High Court of Justice of Galicia - a procedural step within a now-completed insolvency purchase.

ETM's position is protected either way, it explains. If the appeal is resolved in its favour the transfer takes full effect, however, in the alternative, the company is entitled to apply for a new concession, restoring the position held by the previous operator.

ETM will now complete the customary conditions of the transfer and advance an operational review to define the optimal pathway to restart.

ETM MD Daniel Mamadou affirms the company aims to reactivate the mine responsibly, retaining experienced local staff, prioritising local hiring, and working closely with the Viana do Bolo City Council, local civic and business associations, and productive sectors throughout the region - an area with a mining heritage spanning more than a century - so that the reactivation of Penouta generates tangible and shared benefits across the entire region.

"Europe has spent years talking about reducing its dependence on a handful of distant suppliers for the metals its industries cannot do without. Penouta is one of the few places on the continent where that ambition can actually be met - and met soon. This approval clears our path to bringing it responsibly back to life, with real benefits for the Galician community and for Europe's wider supply-chain resilience," he explains.

Penouta forms part of ETM's diversified portfolio of critical minerals projects across Western Europe, North America and Greenland.