By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) – The latest exploration results at Savannah Resources’ Barroso lithium project in northern Portugal point to a larger deposit than the previously estimated 28 million metric tons of high-grade lithium, the company said on Wednesday.
Savannah, which wants to build four open-pit mines in the region to extract enough lithium each year for about half a million to a million electric vehicle batteries, said last month it would accelerate the project to secure the first commercial output in 2027.
“The results from the surface exploration which our team undertook are truly exciting,” the London-listed company’s Chief Executive Officer Emanuel Proenca said on Wednesday.
Savannah has said that Barroso’s deposit of spodumene – an important source of lithium – is already the biggest in Europe.
“The early conclusion is very clear: the Barroso lithium project remains highly prospective for further spodumene lithium resource delineation,” Proenca added.
In a statement, the company said the results indicated that significant follow-up targets existed on the project’s licensed areas, as well as the potential to extend the five known ore deposits.
The European Union is working to reduce dependence on countries such as China for strategic raw materials but Savannah’s project has run into opposition from local residents and environmentalists in the form of protests, legal challenges and refusals to sell land.
Proenca said Savannah is firmly focused on the necessary steps to enable the project’s startup.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip, Kirsten Donovan)
