A few cranes and a chunk of empty land have generated unprecedented excitement in Trujillo, a small town in western Spain.
Nothing will be finished until 2024, but local residents have already been showing up just watch the construction workers.
Many simply can’t believe new developments are happening here at all, in Extremadura, the heart of so-called ’empty Spain’.
“How many things have we been promised during the past years that have not been fulfilled?” asks José Antonio Redondo, the mayor of Trujillo.
“It has created a lot of excitement and will revitalise the town,” he tells Euronews.
What today is still a construction site will soon be the home of a synthetic diamond factory run by Diamond Foundry.
The North American company, which has Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor and advisor, has brought hope back to this town located in what is known as ’empty Spain’ due to rapid depopulation in recent decades.
Despite being known as “the most beautiful town” in the region of Cáceres, Trujillo is increasingly seeing more “up for rent” signs on its balconies and empty premises.
In the 1950s, this municipality had more than 14,000 inhabitants. However, over the years its population has been in decline and now the number is below 9,000, according to Spain’s National Institute of Statistics.
“It is impossible to maintain the population in these areas only exploiting the hotel industry and the agricultural sector,” says Redondo.
The sun and the quality of local stone were enough for the North American company to invest in Trujillo.
The idea is to produce synthetic diamonds for different uses: some for jewellery and also for industrial use.
These stones can be used to produce diamond crystal chips with semiconductor properties used to manufacture mobile phones and car batteries.
Its production is 100% hydroelectric, and while a diamond deposit takes thousands of years to be able to extract real diamonds, synthetic ones can be produced in a week using solar energy.
During the negotiations, other countries such as China and the United Arab Emirates were considered instead of the Spanish village.
Two reasons helped Dicaprio’s company make up their mind: the reasonable price of renewable energy and the certainty that Spain is a stable market.
