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We invited Savannah Resources to provide comments on the allegations made by the studies from Dunlap and Riquito (2023), the European Environmental Bureau and Catapa (2023) and Reuters (2022). The company responded.
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Portuguese prosecutors aim to annul Savannah Resources' environmental permit for a lithium mine in a northern Portugal heritage site, citing legal violations and inadequate environmental risk assessments. Concerns also arise over the combined impact of Savannah's mine and another nearby.
The European Commission’s planned Critical Raw Materials Act would see the EU mine at least 10% of the lithium, cobalt and similar materials it uses by 2030 and refine and recycle more as global competition grows for those resources. However, activists in Portugal and elsewhere who are determined to halt mine developments – via protests, legal challenges or simply refusing to sell or rent the land needed – threaten to slow the European Union’s green transition. Opposition to mining projects in Europe focuses on the consequences for the local population and environmental damage.
Savannah Resources’ proposal has secured environmental approval from the Portuguese Government.
A community group in a lithium-rich area of northern Portugal said on Friday it had filed a legal suit against a subsidiary of London-based mining company Savannah Resources for alleged encroachment on communal land.
Local communities worry that extraction activities could harm the environment and nearby farms, undermining their livelihood.