“Hopefully, what we are doing will translate into a bright future for this area"

Manuel Marquez Martin (age 25) is from Paymogo. He is a welder with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and is also trained to work in this sector thanks to Complementary Technical Mining Instruction that regulates minimum professional training in occupational safety and health to work in mining. It is all possible with the arrival of Emerita to the area, and the IBW project, where he has been working for just a month and a half at La Romanera as a drilling assistant. For this task, he received additional training.

He declares that he is very happy, and that he never imagined that he would end up working only five minutes away from his home, and in a sector other than agriculture. In that case, or had he worked on a farm, he would have had to travel an hour away from home. To date, these are the only employment options for young people in that area.

“Hopefully, what we are doing will translate into a bright future for this area,” he says, and continues to express his hope that this project will soon reach the production phase. “It would be a very important source of wealth and employment for all the surrounding towns by recuperating a traditional activity, but one that disappeared many years ago.”