The creation of the Iberian Mining Observatory was announced on 13 March 2022 during a special session of the Congress of Deputies on the reform of the 1973 mining act. The conference 'For a new environmental and social mining law' was organised in Madrid by the Confederal Group of Unidas Podemos-En Comú Podem-Galicia en Común and was attended by MPs, MEPs, regional MPs, as well as representatives of civil society groups dealing with the impacts of mining.
During his speech, Joam Evans, who participates in the Iberian Mining Observatory, explained how past and present mining has left a deadly trail of environmental disasters and impacts on people's health all over the Iberian Peninsula, citing the cases of Riotinto in Huelva, Touro and San Finx in Galicia, and the Sierra Minera de Cartagena.
Describing these cases as 'just the tip of the iceberg and that there are hundreds of cases throughout the territory of mines with serious social and environmental problems', Evans went on to present MINOB, a tool to be launched this spring: 'Recently, the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 has supported a project to strengthen environmental citizenship in the face of mining impacts, within which a database has been created that illustrates the systematic nature of social and environmental rights violations associated with new mining projects.'