Mining permit refused in Spain? Appeal it, or oppose someone else's

The case, in five lines

What is brought

For the company: an alzada against the refusal or the closure of the file, or reposición if the decision ends the administrative route, followed by judicial review proceedings (recurso contencioso-administrativo) seeking its annulment and either the grant or a fresh decision; in parallel, the applications that preserve priority. For objectors: appearing and objecting during the información pública (public consultation period), making submissions in the environmental assessment and challenging the grant while seeking its suspension.

Before which court

The administrative appeal goes to whichever body the pie de recurso (statement of appeal rights) names: for an alzada, the superior of the regional mining authority, although it may be lodged with the body that issued the act (art. 121 of Law 39/2015); for reposición, the same body. Judicial review lies, as a rule, before the Sala de lo Contencioso-administrativo del Tribunal Superior de Justicia (the administrative chamber of the regional High Court of Justice) (art. 10.1.a LJCA). If MITECO (Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition) decided, that court or the Audiencia Nacional (National High Court), depending on the rank of the body (arts. 10.1.i and 11.1.a); the decision on a Proyecto Estratégico de Inversión (Strategic Investment Project), before the Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) (art. 12.1.a).

Deadline

One month for the alzada from notification; once it passes, the decision is final (art. 122.1 of Law 39/2015). Two months for judicial review (art. 46.1 LJCA). Separately, without waiting for the appeal: thirty days to apply for investigation permits if exploration is refused (art. 42.Dos of the Ley de Minas, the Mining Act) and sixty if a direct concession is refused for lack of proof of the resource (art. 65.Dos). To object, fifteen days from the BOE (art. 70.2 of the Reglamento General para el Régimen de la Minería, the General Mining Regulations).

Who can bring it

The applicant, personally or through a representative; the firm files with its own digital certificate, without asking for yours. To object within the mining file, anyone who is an interested party and appears in time: owners of land within the perimeter, holders of affected mining rights, town councils. In judicial review, anyone who shows a right or legitimate interest, including environmental associations that meet the requirements of Law 27/2006.

Financial risk

The appeal does not stop the priority periods or the expiry of the permit. Against technical judgment you only win by proving error, arbitrariness or a failure to give reasons, and winning on a procedural flaw usually brings a fresh decision, not the permit. Judicial review requires legal representation before the court, takes time and may end with an order to pay costs. For objectors, without interim suspension the works may start while the case is pending.

What you have been notified, who signed it and what the statement of appeal rights says

The Mining Act does not name rare earths or the other critical minerals: if the deposit is natural and neither radioactive nor of energy interest, it falls within Section C, the residual category (art. 3.Uno). Its titles are the exploration permit, for one year extendable by another (art. 40); the investigation permit, for up to three years, which opens the way to the concession once the resource has been defined (arts. 44 and 45), and the exploitation concession (art. 62.Uno). The regional mining authority decides, and MITECO does if the resources lie in several communities or on the continental shelf.

The first thing is the statement of appeal rights: the notification must state whether the decision ends the administrative route, which appeals lie, before which body and within what time (art. 40.2 of Law 39/2015). If it does not end it, an alzada within one month before the hierarchical superior, which may be lodged with the body that issued the act (arts. 121 and 122); if it does, an optional reposición within one month, or judicial review directly within two (art. 46.1 LJCA). It depends on each community's organisation, and for the derived concession the Mining Act declares that the decision ends the administrative route (art. 69.Cuatro).

If the statement omits any of those details, the notification only takes effect when you act with knowledge of its content or lodge the appropriate appeal (art. 40.3), but it is unwise to stake the case on that rule. A closure of the file for withdrawal or for lapse of the procedure is appealed like a refusal, because it is the decision that ends the procedure (art. 112.1). And the forfeiture (caducidad) of a concession already granted is a different file, governed by the causes to which art. 62.Uno of the Mining Act refers.

Priority over the land runs separately from the appeal

In mining, whoever applies first has preference: between exploration permits the order of filing decides (art. 41 of the Mining Act) and an investigation application is admitted without prejudice to a better right (art. 70.1 of the Mining Regulations). That is why a refusal opens short periods. If exploration is refused, you keep for thirty days, from the day after notification, priority over the land that was free and open to registration (franco y registrable) when you applied, and you may consolidate it by applying for investigation permits or direct concessions (art. 42.Dos of the Mining Act and art. 61.2 of the Mining Regulations).

If a direct concession is refused because the resource has not been sufficiently proved, you have sixty days from notification to apply for an investigation permit over that land and for those resources, with the priority of your first application (art. 65.Dos of the Mining Act and art. 86.2 of the Mining Regulations); the same applies to the remaining area if the concession is granted over a smaller one (art. 86.3). If the derived concession is refused because the research did not reveal the resource, you may continue investigating until the permit's term runs out (art. 69.Dos).

What nobody tells you is that those periods do not wait for the appeal: the law counts them from notification and does not provide for their suspension. That is why both things are often done: the appeal defends the original application and its date, and the new one secures the land. And the investigation permit has its own clock: the extension is not automatic (art. 45) and the derived concession can only be applied for while the permit is in force (art. 67). If the extension is refused, do not count on the appeal keeping the permit alive: before it expires, decide whether to apply for the concession now.

Why an investigation permit is refused, and what evidence rebuts it

The grounds are usually specific. That the land is not free and open to registration because another mining right occupies it: the law requires it (art. 37.Dos) and the Mining Regulations require the application to be rejected if no free land remains (art. 70.3). That the project lacks a work programme, a budget or an economic study of its financing (art. 47); although, if the financing was unconvincing, the Mining Regulations allowed a deposit of 10% of the first year's investment to be required (art. 67), a less onerous course than refusal. Or that the authorised restoration plan is missing, without which there is no title (art. 4.2 of Royal Decree 975/2009).

The decision must state its reasons (art. 71.2 of the Mining Regulations), and the decisive evidence is in the file: the technical reports, the on-site check of the data, to which you should have been summoned (art. 70.3), the demarcation plans and the libro historial de permisos y concesiones (the register of permits and concessions) (art. 70.1). For a direct concession, the report of the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute) is also mandatory (art. 65.Uno of the Mining Act). Against technical judgment, mere disagreement does not succeed: you win by proving factual error, arbitrariness or a failure to give reasons, with data from the project and the file.

One judicial criterion worth knowing: the courts have upheld the rejection of an investigation permit that repeats, with minor changes, applications already cancelled, or that pursues resources of another section, because the permit exists to find out whether a Section C resource exists, not to reserve land against other companies. A new application must correct what failed. And if the refusal relied on a report you could neither see nor answer, the hearing is missing: before the proposed decision, the file must be made available for fifteen days to the interested parties who have appeared (art. 71.1 of the Mining Regulations).

An unfavourable environmental impact statement is not appealed on its own

The environmental assessment depends on the project. An investigation permit involving a pilot face, galleries or a waste facility goes to simplified assessment (Law 21/2013, Annex II, group 3); an open-pit operation of more than 25 hectares or more than 200,000 cubic metres of earth a year, or one extracting substances that generate acidity or toxicity, goes to ordinary assessment (Annex I, group 2). In the ordinary procedure, public consultation lasts at least thirty working days and the declaración de impacto ambiental (DIA, environmental impact statement) is issued within four months; the simplified-assessment report, within three.

The DIA and the simplified-assessment report are steps in the mining procedure, not its end. A separate appeal against intermediate procedural acts only lies if they decide the merits, prevent the procedure from continuing, leave the party unable to defend itself or cause irreparable harm; objection to the rest is raised for the final decision (art. 112.1 of Law 39/2015). It is arguable whether an unfavourable DIA indirectly decides the merits, but the safe course is to fight it when appealing the refusal of the title, which is the decision that applies it, and a favourable one when challenging the grant. Appealing only the DIA and letting the refusal become final is the worst outcome.

Here technical evidence decides: data the environmental authority did not have or did not assess (water, protected areas, waste, corrective measures) and proof that what it finds lacking was in the project. The restoration plan follows the same track: the mining authority authorises it with a report from the environmental authority, together with the title (arts. 4.2, 5.1 and 5.2 of Royal Decree 975/2009). If the project is strategic, the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA, Regulation (EU) 2024/1252) allows it to be regarded as of overriding public interest for the purposes of the Habitats, Water and Birds Directives if all their conditions are met (art. 10.2): a weighty argument, not an automatic favourable DIA.

If you want to object: fifteen days from the BOE and interested-party status

Once an investigation permit application is admitted, it is announced in the BOE and in the provincial gazette, with a public notice at the town council, so that interested parties can appear within the fifteen days following publication in the BOE; afterwards no objection whatsoever is admitted (art. 70.2 of the Mining Regulations). Count from the BOE, not from the regional gazette or the town council notice, and do not leave it to the last minute: filing within fifteen calendar days avoids any argument about the count. A direct concession also goes through public consultation and is only granted if there was no objection or it was rejected (art. 65.Uno of the Mining Act).

A useful objection rests on what the authority must verify: land that is free and open to registration and does not encroach on earlier rights (art. 37.Dos of the Mining Act), a correct demarcation and a project with a programme, a budget and financing (art. 47). Environmental arguments belong in the public consultation of the environmental assessment, lasting at least thirty working days, and in that of the restoration plan, lasting at least thirty days and merged with the former when there is an assessment (art. 6 of Royal Decree 975/2009). Appearing in time pays off: before the proposed decision, those who have appeared have fifteen days to make submissions and provide documents (art. 71.1 of the Mining Regulations).

What nobody tells you is that being the landowner gives no right of veto: deposits are public domain property (art. 2 of the Mining Act), and an objection does not debate whether the mine suits you but whether the permit complies with the law. Once it is granted, you may appeal it; the period for judicial review runs from notification or publication (art. 46.1 LJCA). There, a right or legitimate interest is required: the owner of a plot within the perimeter and the holder of an affected mining right have one; a neighbour, if they prove they are genuinely affected. And to halt the works while the case is pending, interim suspension must be sought, proving that without it the appeal would lose its purpose.

EU strategic project and Strategic Investment Project: what changes

If your project is strategic under the CRMA, the permit-granting process may not exceed twenty-seven months with extraction and fifteen where there is only processing or recycling, or twenty-four and twelve if it was already under way when recognised (art. 11). The phase in which you prepare the impact study does not count (art. 11.3), and the punto de contacto único (single point of contact) (art. 9) acknowledges that the application is complete, or asks for what is missing, within forty-five days (art. 11.6). Spain has one per autonomous community and, for extraction at State level or spanning several communities, the Subdirección General de Minas (Sub-Directorate-General for Mines) of MITECO. Recognition does not exempt the project from any authorisation (art. 6.3).

The Commission decides (Spain had seven projects on the first list and two on the list of 9 October 2026), and a reasoned objection from the Member State concerned prevents it (art. 7.8). In parallel, Royal Decree 731/2026 creates the Strategic Investment Project declaration: an EU strategic project obtains the preliminary declaration without needing a positive assessment of the art. 3 criteria (art. 16.4) and may be exempted from those of art. 4 (arts. 4.1.k and 17.2). The final declaration is adopted within three months by the Comisión Delegada del Gobierno para Asuntos Económicos (the Government Delegated Committee for Economic Affairs), with negative administrative silence (art. 17.5), and is challenged before the Tribunal Supremo (art. 12.1.a LJCA). And an application that repeats one refused in the previous year, with the same location, sector, promoters and activities, is deemed manifestly unfounded (art. 16.2).

For objectors, strategic status does not close the door: the urgency of litigation only applies where national law provides for urgent procedures and subject to the rights of defence of individuals and local communities (art. 10.5); overriding public interest requires all the conditions of the directives to be met (art. 10.2); public consultation on the impact study may not fall below thirty days (art. 12.5), and the CRMA time limits are without prejudice to administrative appeals and judicial remedies (art. 11.10). If the Commission refuses recognition, that is not challenged before the Spanish courts: the practical course is to arrive better prepared at the call announced for the end of 2026.

How we run the case, step by step

1. 1

   Pin down the periods running at the same time

   From the notification or the BOE notice we calculate the month for the appeal, the thirty or sixty days of priority, the fifteen days for objecting and the expiry of the permit, and we read which appeal and which body the statement of appeal rights names.

2. 2

   Obtain the full file

   Technical reports, the on-site check, demarcation plans, the entry in the register of permits and concessions, the restoration plan and the environmental assessment: without them you appeal blind.

3. 3

   Separate the authority's error from your own

   If the error is the authority's (free land treated as occupied, missing reasons or hearing, data not assessed), you appeal; if it lies in the project, it is corrected in a new application within the priority periods; often, both.

4. 4

   Appeal or objection in time

   The firm files it as representative, with its own digital certificate: against a refusal, point by point and with technical evidence; against someone else's permit, the appearance within the fifteen days and submissions in each public consultation.

5. 5

   Use the strategic route if the project fits

   If the project concerns critical raw materials, we prepare the Strategic Investment Project application, which we can file with your power of representation, and the bid for the EU call at the end of 2026, which the promoter submits.

6. 6

   Judicial review and interim suspension

   Once the appeal is dismissed, within two months of its notification, before the Sala de lo Contencioso-administrativo of the Tribunal Superior de Justicia or the court named in the statement of appeal rights; objectors also seek suspension so that the works do not start.

The law that applies

• Arts. 2, 3, 37, 40 a 47 y 60 a 69 de la Ley 22/1973, de Minas. Deposits are public domain property and Section C is the residual category. Exploration lasts one year, extendable by another, and if refused leaves thirty days of priority; investigation requires free land open to registration and a project with a programme, budget and financing, lasts up to three years and opens the way to the concession, which is applied for while it is in force. If a direct concession is refused because the resource is not proved, sixty days to apply for investigation. BOE-A-1973-1018
• Arts. 61, 70, 71 y 86 del Reglamento General para el Régimen de la Minería (RD 2857/1978). If exploration is refused, thirty days of priority. An investigation application is admitted without prejudice to a better right, with fifteen days from the BOE to appear; it is rejected if there is no free land; those who have appeared have a fifteen-day hearing and the reasoned decision must come within six months. If a direct concession is refused for an insufficient resource, sixty days with the priority of the first application. BOE-A-1978-29905
• Arts. 4, 5 y 6 del RD 975/2009. The restoration plan accompanies the application and is authorised together with the mining title, after a report from the environmental authority, as a special condition; without an authorised plan there is no title, and works wait for the guarantees. Its public consultation lasts at least thirty days and is merged with that of the environmental assessment where there is one. BOE-A-2009-9841
• Arts. 33, 36 y 47 y anexos I y II de la Ley 21/2013, de evaluación ambiental. Ordinary assessment for open-pit operations of more than 25 hectares or 200,000 cubic metres of earth a year and for those extracting substances that generate acidity or toxicity; simplified assessment for investigation with a pilot face, galleries or a waste facility. Public consultation of at least thirty working days; a statement within four months and a simplified-assessment report within three. BOE-A-2013-12913
• Arts. 6.3, 7.8 y 9 a 12 del Reglamento (UE) 2024/1252 (CRMA). The Commission recognises strategic projects, without exempting them from any authorisation, unless the Member State concerned objects. They are in the public interest and may be of overriding public interest if the environmental directives are complied with; litigation over them is urgent where national law so provides, and they are authorised within twenty-seven or fifteen months, not counting preparation of the impact study, whose public consultation lasts from thirty to eighty-five days. 02024R1252-20240503
• Arts. 4, 13, 16 y 17 del RD 731/2026. Strategic Investment Project declaration applied for electronically with a statement of compliance: preliminary declaration within one month, without needing a positive assessment under art. 3 for CRMA strategic projects; final declaration by the Government Delegated Committee for Economic Affairs within three months, with negative administrative silence. An application identical to one refused in the previous year is deemed manifestly unfounded. BOE-A-2026-19327
• Arts. 24, 40, 112, 121 y 122 de la Ley 39/2015. Silence counts as refusal if granting transfers powers over public domain property or involves activities that may harm the environment. The notification states whether the administrative route is exhausted, the appeals, the body and the deadline; if something is omitted, it takes effect when the interested party acts or appeals. Only some intermediate acts may be appealed; the alzada, within one month, and with no answer in three months it may be deemed dismissed. BOE-A-2015-10565
• Arts. 10, 11, 12 y 46 LJCA. The Tribunales Superiores de Justicia hear claims against regional acts not assigned to the administrative-law sections of the Tribunales de Instancia (first-instance courts) and against acts of State bodies with nationwide competence below Secretary of State on special property regimes; the Audiencia Nacional, those of Ministers and Secretaries of State; the Tribunal Supremo, those of the Government's Delegated Committees. Two months to bring the claim. BOE-A-1998-16718

Each article checked against the consolidated text published in the BOE (the Spanish official gazette).

Frequently asked questions