PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba. – Just over 33 thousand people live in Minas de Matahambre, a municipality in Pinar del Río province where more than a century ago mining began, reborn now with an ambitious project.

The area where the towns of Minas de Matahambre and Santa Lucia are located begins to revive with the Castellanos polymetallic project, dedicated to the extraction of lead and zinc concentrates.

With an investment of more than 270 million dollars they expect to explode the deposit for 11 years; it is located just a kilometer and a half of the newly built plant that must come into operation next October.

The plant, with the most modern worldwide technology on mineral processing, will allow exporting some 50 thousand tons of lead concentrate each year and 100 thousand of zinc concentrate.

A Promising Future

In this first stage, we will work on the start-up of the plant but we will increase production volumes next year, geologist Justo Hernandez, deputy general manager in the Castellanos polymetallic project said to Radio Reloj.

Just a kilometer and a half from the site they have identified another with somewhat higher reserves according to estimates, which would allow lengthening the extraction time.

The works include induced investments as the repair of the water driver and the installation of a drinking water treatment station in Nombre de Dios Dam, which will not only deliver water to the plant, but also to the nearby town of Santa Lucia.

The Castellanos project will boost the national economy and makes Matahambre to revive from the subsoil.