A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #353 - No Mine's Land 2025 Returns to Allier (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Stop Mines 03 organized three days of meetings with conferences, 
debates, round tables, concerts, and much more, in response to the call 
for international days against extractivism, which originated in Mexico 
on July 22, 2009. The idea was revived in 2013 in Sarthe following 
Arnaud Montebourg's statements on the revival of the mining industry in 
France. Stop Mines 23 (Creuse) subsequently continued the adventure for 
several years, opposing gold mining projects in its region and in French 
Guiana.

Where were we?
The camp was held in a small town, La Celle, halfway between Echassières 
(lithium mine) and Montluçon (refining plant). Why is this so important 
to write about? To warmly thank the Mayor of this town and her husband, 
who graciously provided us with several hectares of their farmland, as 
well as a free electricity and water supply. Their support in a hostile 
environment and despite pressure from the authorities is to be 
commended! As proof, we learned that our hosts had 70 meters of their 
fence cut from top to bottom, thus risking some of their animals 
wandering, not to mention the costs incurred.

Neither Here, Nor Elsewhere!
Since the creation of Stop Mines 03 in January 2023, the "Neither here, 
nor elsewhere" movement has been championed in response to the "not 
here" stance of defenders of the living environment and the "take our 
share of the ecological disaster" of die-hard environmentalists. 
Following our information tour and various meetings, we established 
links with other collectives in France, such as Stop Mines, as well as 
those fighting against the digitalization of society, militarism and 
weaponry, nuclear power, and the extraction of raw materials. We are in 
contact with several European collectives, in Portugal, Spain, Germany, 
Serbia, and Belgium, as well as with collectives from the Americas, 
Argentina, Quebec, and Africa in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo), 
many of which were represented at the meetings.
"Ni ici" (Not here) must emphasize that the more mining takes place in 
our regions, the more extraction can only increase exponentially 
elsewhere, due to the growing demand for minerals, metals, and rare 
earths unavailable in our countries.

The Camp
Several conferences/debates were held, covering minerals and weapons, an 
overview of the struggles against Imérys (the multinational behind the 
Echassières mine project), legal tools in the struggles, a gesticulated 
conference on the struggle, the Emili project in Echassières, myths and 
realities of the ecological transition, militarism and anti-militarism 
in AURA (Auvergne Rhône-Alpes), victories in our struggles, extractivism 
and radioactivity. Workshops, collective travel to demonstrations, 
collective defense and anti-rep. knowledge and practical tools. 
Roundtable discussions, organizing the fight against extractivism in 
France, fighting extractivism and strengthening international 
solidarity. And nature walks and a Toxic Tour in the Colettes Forest. As 
an aside, the interpretation provided by the Allier prefecture, which 
led to its inclusion in one of the orders restricting our movements, 
concerns the anti-republic movement, transcribed as a rally advocating 
an anti-republican discourse: Hi! Hi! Hi!

The discussions at the first roundtable (organizing the fight against 
extractivism in France) gave rise to a very interesting debate between 
the various groups present. We (Stop Mines 03) were confronted with an 
unscheduled general assembly. The organizer's initial idea was 
interpreted as centralizing the struggle, which upset him. At the end of 
the discussions, however, everyone was very satisfied with the direction 
of this roundtable, which they described as meaningful and "democratic." 
Another issue was raised: that of the Sunday demonstration. The question 
being, what was the purpose of the demonstration? In our communications, 
we had announced a festive, colorful, and family-friendly parade. This 
posed a problem for some! We couldn't meet their expectations 
immediately, so the decision was made to hold our general meeting that 
evening to clarify our position and share it with them the following day 
at noon. We prepared a text that we read to them on Saturday at noon. 
The ensuing discussions revealed a different vision between urban and 
rural activists, and between seasoned activists and novice activists. 
But the message got through: we were still holding a festive, colorful, 
and family-oriented parade. According to the canteen's count, 350 meals 
had been served on Saturday, with more people passing through adding to 
the number.

The Demonstration
Early Sunday morning, a two-part meeting was planned to organize the 
demonstration. First, the strategic part: re-specifying the march's 
goals and agreeing to depart in a convoy, the objective of which was to 
resist identity checks by blocking traffic if necessary and forming a 
solid base when exiting vehicles. Second, the legal team part, with the 
distribution of contact details for the lawyer and the anti-rep contact.

The convoy went smoothly until Lapeyrouse, a small town not far from 
Echassières, where a gendarmerie checkpoint was positioned. The 
implementation of our strategy allowed us to break through the 
checkpoint. When we arrived in Echassières, a much larger gendarmerie 
delegation was waiting for us, and also a little more angry, but they 
let us park in the designated spot. It was on our way back, as we were 
returning to the community hall, where we were supposed to eat, that 
they blocked us, even though the demonstration had been declared. The 
local gendarmerie's superior informed us that given the number of masked 
people, it was out of the question to allow them to demonstrate. After 
discussion over lunch, we decided to apply the same strategy as for the 
roadblock: force their way through, which proved unnecessary as the 
supreme authority's instructions were not carried out. The demonstration 
proceeded as planned, with a festive, colorful, and family-friendly 
parade. Note, however, that there was some graffiti and some flag damage 
as we passed by the town hall. The deployment of Republican forces, 
visible only inside the mine enclosure, privately owned by Imérys, 
reassured us about the foundations of the rule of law in our capitalist 
societies. Four members of the internal intelligence services traveled 
part of the way with us, until the decision was made to dismiss them.

Echassières demonstration on July 27, 2025
All this may seem trivial to some, but in our countryside, where respect 
for authority and conversations with internal intelligence and 
gendarmerie officers under the pretext that they are friendly and/or 
family are commonplace, it was necessary to highlight this.
A count, according to our JPE acquaintance, gave the figure of 400 
people, which for a town of fewer than 400 inhabitants is very 
satisfactory (especially since half of the participants were locals). 
For comparison, this would correspond to 2 million people in Paris, but 
no, I'm joking! However, many locals were unable to attend because the 
roads leading to Echassières were closed. Drone overflight authorized by 
prefectural decree.

The return to base camp was almost uneventful, except that a car wanted 
for refusing to pass a checkpoint in the previous days and lost in the 
convoy was spotted, and an attempt by the police to intercept it was 
thwarted using the same strategy as on the outward journey: collective 
action.

What is the status of the project?

Following the public inquiry into the pilot phase, building permits were 
granted for the crushing plant in Echassières and the conversion plant 
in Saint-Victor (near Montluçon) at a scale of 1:80 and 1:160 of the 
industrial phase. An exemption to begin work before approval by the 
environmental authority was not granted. This pushes back the start of 
construction to the end of 2025.
We learned through the press that the multinational Imérys is postponing 
the start of the industrial phase to 2030 instead of 2028. But for twice 
as long, i.e., 50 years instead of 25, due to a much larger deposit than 
initially estimated.

Furthermore, Imérys's stock price has plummeted following the collapse 
in the price of lithium, which is currently around EUR10 per kg, for an 
extraction price between EUR7 and EUR9 per kg, an amount mentioned in 
the Imérys filing.

Furthermore, the investment estimate, originally estimated at EUR1 
billion, has risen to EUR1.8 billion.
As we can see above, the benefits are no longer just ecological, but 
financial, but who doubted that?

Our victories!
The first victory is, first and foremost, our work of information, 
contacts, and meetings over the past three years. This, along with 
valuable external assistance, has allowed us to organize three days of 
collective meetings against extractivism, which challenges the 
capitalist organization of territories.
For many of us, the unbanning of the demonstration in Echassières is 
already a victory in itself.

Despite the latest information we have received about the project, which 
is due more to current geopolitics than to a real abandonment of the 
project, we remain attentive and in the fight!

DAGE August 2025
P.S. To learn more about the project, see Current Alternative issues 
326, 330, 340, 343, 347, and 352, as well as
livresdhenri.lautre.net/Le-lithium-creature-du-capitalocene
livresdhenri.lautre.net/On-ne-va-pas-se-laissez-miner
livresdhenri.lautre.net/Info-tour-le-lithium-en-question-mais-pas-seulement

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4533
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