Brittany, a future Eldorado? A Canadian company has filed requests for a mining exploration permit in the region’s basements. The French authorities must still approve these projects and many inhabitants fear a rush which would cause irrevocable environmental damage.
Jacques Le Quéré sought gold in his native land of Brittany for ten years. This former professional goldsmaker shows in the 7:30 p.m. a nugget of six grams, the largest he found during his quest for a vein in the region.
“When I saw her in my bowl, my little heart did tac-tac. We believe that we dream. We say that it is not possible, “he said.” There is poetry. Afterwards, in industry, poetry may no longer exist. It is profitability that prevails and not the dream. I dream. “
![The nugget of six grams discovered by Jacques Le Quéré. [RTS]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== "The nugget of six grams discovered by Jacques Le Quéré. [RTS]")
A question of “sovereignty”
Would Brittany hide a treasure? The mining exploration permits concern around forty metals. And gold occupies a special place among particularly coveted minerals, in view of its current market value.
>> To reread: Gold reaches summits, surprising analysts
Geologist in the Canadian company Breizh Resources, Guillaume Mamias is carrying out mining exploration projects in Brittany. It is he who will have to try to identify potential drilling areas if the French authorities give their green light, a verdict expected by the end of the year.
“Europe consumes 20% of metals worldwide and produces only 3%,” he notes. “We have a concern for sovereignty. This dependence on foreign countries generates a lot of geopolitical tensions,” he analyzes.
Worried residents
This renewed interest in mining extraction is not without fear on the side of the inhabitants and inhabitants of the region. Village assemblies have multiplied in recent weeks to prepare resistance.
“Gold benefits those who extract it and not to those who live where it is extracted,” says Jean Baranger, member of Stop Taranis, a collective against mines.
One of the main fears concerns environmental impact, in particular drinking water resources. An average gold mine consumes the equivalent in water of 70,000 inhabitants.
“In Brittany, we depend on our rivers and our dams for our drinking water”, underlines Pauline Pennober, of the Environmental Water Association and Rivers of Brittany. And to alert on pollution and excessive consumption of this resource.
Abandonment of activities
Guillaume Mamias says he understands these fears, because mining activity is no longer really part of the landscape. “We have stopped the exploitation of mines since the 1980s,” he notes.
Jacques Le Quéré, he put an end to “his” rush to gold, too little profitable on his scale. There are only a few discoveries, glitter for example, testimonies of years spent walking the Breton rivers. But the basements in his region may not yet have delivered all their secrets.
>> Read also: “Minerals will rebound the cards of the economy and global energy”
TV subject: Raphaël Grand
Adaptation web: Antoine Michel
