Austrian firm BPG to clean Spanish mine waste while extracting precious metals

Ernst Grissemann, ex-military officer and longtime manager, heads BPG Alternative Minerals Reserves AG, which intends to remediate the heavily polluted mining tailings of Huelva, Spain, by extracting gold, silver, copper and arsenic. The company will front the cleanup costs, earning revenue from the minerals left behind by previous operators, meaning Spain pays nothing for the operation. BPG has already applied this model in northern Oman with the state-owned Oman Mining Company and is eyeing similar opportunities in Kyrgyzstan.

Grissemann stresses that repurposing old waste sites is faster than opening new mines and aligns with the EU’s goal to secure critical raw materials. He also points to potential sites across Europe, including Germany, Poland and Austria, as the continent seeks to lessen dependence on imports from China. The initiative could provide both environmental restoration and a domestic source of strategic metals.