El empleo minero en Aragón aumenta más del 8% en el último año
The employment in the mining sector has grown by more than eight percent in Aragon in the last year, as emphasized at the General Assembly of Mining Companies Group (AEMA), which closed on Monday in Zaragoza, the Vice President and Minister of the Presidency, Economy, and Justice of the Government of Aragon, Mar Vaquero.
The Vice President was accompanied by the Director General of Energy and Mines of the Government of Aragon, Yolanda Vallés, as well as by the President of Aema, Íñigo Barreneche, and the representatives of the companies that make up this group since 2002 as the main body of representation of the sector in the autonomous community.
Among them are mining subsectors such as alabaster, clays, coal, carbonate, ornamental rocks, salts, plaster, potassium, and other transformed products.
Mar Vaquero, during his speech at the General Assembly of mining companies in Aragon, highlighted the importance of the community sector.
«From the elements that have lived in our territory for thousands of years, you have made life and the reason for thousands of families. Therefore, its social importance is undoubtedly,» he said.
He also wanted to appreciate the innovative nature of the sector, countering those «stereotypes» that speak of mining activity as «a job anchored in past and rough procedures.» «In its activity, there is a technology and a clear future vocation,» he said, emphasizing that «only in this way can the growth or production figures measured in millions be explained.»
The president of AEMA, Íñigo Barrenechea, emphasized in his speech «The importance of a sector, the mining sector, which, in addition to being present in almost all the products and services we use every day, has a direct impact on many other fields of activity and the fixed population in the territory where the resources are, creating quality work that is not.»
According to the latest data from the General Directorate of Energy and Mines of the Government of Aragon, mining currently directly involves 2,320 people in the community, most of them in the province of Teruel.
These figures represent an increase of 8.2% compared to those of a year ago, and 16% if we go back five years. With them, the growing trend shown by mining work in Aragon is confirmed in recent years, in which industrial mining has acquired the predominant role that coal and clay had, a fundamental raw material for the ceramic sector, has gradually increased its weight.
At this time, in Aragon, there are 255 active mining operations – 105 in the province of Teruel, 90 in Zaragoza, and 60 in Huesca.
Together, they produce around 18.1 million annual tons of minerals divided into 10 million tons of aggregates for public buildings and the construction sector, 8 million tons of industrial minerals for various applications, and 250,000 tons of ornamental rock products.
In economic terms, the value of the extractive sector’s production in Aragon is approximately 200 million euros per year. To these indicators, we must add those representing mineral and thermal waters, which generate 750 direct jobs in the natural power of bottled mineral water and the 11 spas operating in Aragon.
FUENTE
