The Spanish Parliament has rejected a motion by democratic socialist electoral alliance Unidas Podemos that would have made it more difficult to secure approvals for new mining projects and would have also increased taxes on existing mineral producers.

On June 23, the motion was outvoted by an overwhelming 283 votes against versus 36 in favour, with 22 abstentions.

The Spanish Parliament highlighted the necessity for critical minerals in the transition to environmentally responsible economies and drew attention to the call by the European Union to be self-sufficient in those critical raw materials in which supply is dominated by third parties.

The proposed amendment to the Spanish mining law was tabled by the same party members that wrote to certain shareholders of ASX-listed critical minerals explorer and developer Rafaella Resources in March, making what the company labelled “various unsubstantiated allegations” that it strongly refuted.

Two members of the Spanish Parliament wrote to Rafaella’s shareholders alleging, among other things, that the company had pre-existing environmental liabilities.

In refuting the allegations, Rafaela made it clear that the views expressed in the letter were the authors’ personal views and were not representative of the government of Spain.

“The rejection by the Spanish Parliament of a motion to amend the mining law by these same members of Parliament reinforces this fact. Furthermore, the government of Spain has made it clear in their response to the proposal that the development of critical metals is an important contributor to the responsible ecological transition of Europe’s economies,” Rafaela MD Steven Turner said on July 1.

Rafaella continues to progress the Santa Comba and San Finx tungsten and tin development projects in Spain. The recently acquired San Finx project lies 50 km south of the company’s flagship Santa Comba tungsten and tin mine in Galicia, in north-west Spain, all within the same geological belt.

The company also owns a battery metals exploration portfolio in Canada located within the prolific Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt (BAGB), comprising the Midrim, Laforce, Alotta and Lorraine high-grade nickel, copper and platinum group metals sulphide projects in Quebec.

These BAGB project areas host historic nickel/copper mining operations and recent drilling has revealed additional high-grade intersections offering significant exploration upside for battery metals in a supportive mining jurisdiction, the company said.