By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) – London-based Savannah Resources has suspended prospecting works at some sites of its lithium project in northern Portugal due to a precautionary injunction filed in a court by some landowners, the company said on Thursday.
The injunction only covers land that is not owned by the company.
Savannah said in a statement it was notified by the Mirandela Administrative Court of the injunction, which aims to reverse the government’s authorisation in December for the company to access land belonging to others to do more prospecting.
“We were expecting it and we accepted it as normal … teams on the ground have already temporarily stopped the work they have been doing for the last two months,” it said.
The company has said Barroso’s spodumene deposit is the most significant in Europe and the latest prospecting results point to a larger deposit than the previously estimated 28 million metric tons of high-grade lithium for batteries. It plans to start commercial output in 2027.
It requires around 840 hectares for its four-mine project, but Savannah has just a fraction of that.
Private owners hold around 24% of the land needed, while 75% is made up of communal land.
Savannah was granted access to over 520 hectares of land, which it does not own, for a year.
The project has put the European Union’s ambition to reduce dependence on countries such as China for strategic raw materials to the test as it faces opposition from local residents and environmentalists.
“With serenity, we will treat this process like the many others already attempted by the same opposition group, and we hope to return to work quickly,” Savannah said.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves. Editing by Mark Potter)
