Savannah Resources (AIM: SAV), the British company behind the Barroso lithium project in Portugal, that drilling results show reserves are richer than previously thought.
The company鈥檚 technical director, Dale Ferguson, said test results from eight holes across three new areas suggested the potential to expand in 鈥渕ultiple directions鈥�.
鈥淭he results we have announced today, which come from holes at Pinheiro, NOA and Reservat贸rio, all confirm the dual potential, highlighted by earlier results, for these orebodies to contain areas of higher-grade mineralization than previously identified.鈥�
With 60,000 tonnes of known reserves, Portugal is already Europe鈥檚 biggest lithium producer for the ceramics industry.
The region of Barroso 鈥� a Food and Agriculture Organization heritage site 鈥� contains one of the world鈥檚 richest mineral deposits.
The lithium project, slated to be Western聽Europe鈥檚 largest spodumene lithium mine,聽has faced opposition from locals and environmentalists through protests,聽legal challenges, and refusals to sell land. About 24% of the land needed is privately owned, while 75% consists of traditional 鈥渂aldios鈥�, or common land.
Savannah plans to build four open-pit lithium mines in northern Portugal. The company aims to extract enough lithium annually for 500,000 EV batteries and commence production in 2026.
Barroso is forecasting a throughput of about 1.5 million tonnes a year over the estimated 14-year mine life. The estimation is based on a resource of 20.5 million tonnes at 1.05% lithium oxide.
The project has estimated reserves of 28 million tonnes in high-grade lithium.
(With files from Reuters)