{"id":1101684,"date":"2019-02-23T14:19:36","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T14:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=972704"},"modified":"2019-02-24T14:55:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T14:55:36","slug":"europes-push-for-evs-a-boon-to-savannahs-portugal-lithium-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1101684","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s push for EVs a boon to Savannah\u2019s Portugal lithium project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lithium miners have set their eyes on Portugal, a country that doesn\u2019t scream \u201cmining\u201d like other jurisdictions, but which already is Europe’s biggest producer of the commodity, thanks to the surge in popularity of electric vehicles<\/a> (EVs).<\/p>\n

One of those companies is Savannah Resources, currently advancing its Mina do Barroso project in the north of the country, arguably one of the most advanced lithium mining concessions in Europe.<\/p>\n

According to company officials, the mine is on track be the continent’s first significant producer of spodumene, a hard-rock form of lithium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a unique position in Europe,\u201d chief executive David Archer tells MINING.com. \u201cMina do Barroso contains the largest spodumene lithium mineral Resource in Europe at 20.1Mt at 1.04% Li\u2082O and is akin to the successful Australian spodumene mine developments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archer notes that the project is well served with local infrastructure including the nearby Leixoes port, Portugal\u2019s second largest.<\/p>\n

\"Europe\u2019s<\/p>\n

Mina do Barroso lithium project location. (Courtesy of Savannah Resources.<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Savannah, which is listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange\u2019s international market for smaller firms, acquired a 75% interest in Mina do Barroso in May 2017, and has maintained a fast paced development approach<\/a> since.<\/p>\n

The company is currently moving forward with a definitive feasibility study (DFS) led by Primero, an Australian consultancy with deep experience in the lithium field. Archer expects the study to be completed by mid-year.<\/p>\n

While much of the recent drilling has been focused on increasing the mineral resource categories for the DFS, the program continues to deliver expansions to the mineralized zone<\/a> at the Grandao area, extensions in depth at Reservatorio and further encouraging results from the Pinheiro deposit.<\/p>\n

Savannah is close to making a decision on developing Mina do Barroso mine, which could become the first European supplier of spodumene, a lithium-bearing mineral.<\/q><\/p>\n

Savannah Resources estimates the whole project holds a resource estimate of 20 million tonnes with over 200,000 tonnes contained Li20.\u00a0Additionally, metallurgical test-work results have produced an \u201cexcellent\u201d 6% Li20 low impurity concentrate, which according to Archer is \u201cideal\u201d for the EV battery industry<\/a>, further validating the project.<\/p>\n

One hiccup is that based on experts\u2019 estimations, it is 2.5 times more expensive to produce lithium extracted from Portugal’s granite rocks than from the brine fields of Chile, which hosts some of the planet\u2019s largest known reserves of the white metal.<\/p>\n

\u201cMina do Barroso is in the lower quartile of spodumene lithium costs internationally and is the best European analogue of the successful Australian producers,\u201d\u00a0Archer argues. \u201cAustralia is now the dominant producer of lithium illustrating the superior competitive position of hard rock producers of lithium, which is preferred for producing lithium hydroxide and has cost advantages over brines,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Mina do Barroso is set to initially produce 6% Li2O spodumene concentrates destined to China. The open pit mine will also yield a feldspar and quartz co-product to be sold to ceramics industry customers locally and in neighbouring and Spain.<\/p>\n

Archer says the company will soon make a decision on developing the mine, for which it has a 30-year mining lease to 2036.<\/p>\n

Portugal produces about 11% of the global lithium market, but its output is entirely used to make ceramics and glassware. That\u2019s why Europe relies on lithium imports from Latin America\u2019s \u201cLithium Triangle<\/a>,\u201d as well from Australia and China.<\/p>\n

\"Europe\u2019s<\/p>\n

By: MINING.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post Europe\u2019s push for EVs a boon to Savannah\u2019s Portugal lithium project<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The company is close to making a decision on developing Mina do Barroso mine, which could become the first European supplier of spodumene, a lithium-bearing mineral.<\/p>\n

The post Europe’s push for EVs a boon to Savannah’s Portugal lithium project<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1682,424,405,404,369,1683,426,440],"tags":[12,28,30,71,288],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1101684"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1101777,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101684\/revisions\/1101777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1101684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1101684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1101684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}