'Portuguese community files legal action against lithium mining company', 22 July 2022

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.

...the Local Community of Common Land of Covas do Barroso - accused Savannah Resources’ subsidiary Savannah Lithium of alleged “improper appropriation” of land assigned to the community for farming or hunting use near its Mina do Barroso project 145 km northeast of the city of Porto.

Savannah Resources did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment...

Much of the land thought to contain lithium in Portugal is classified as common land whose use is determined by local associations.

The Barroso community group claims Savannah Lithium, which already mines feldspar, quartz and pegmatite in the area, broke the law by buying land based on topographical surveys it ordered that “in no way correspond to well-known (common land) limits established generations ago”.

“We were forced to resort to legal action when faced with (land purchase) deals based on records that ... do not correspond to the truth,” it said, calling for those purchases to be declared annulled and void...