Portugal’s Lusorecursos gets final environmental OK for lithium mine

Reuters | September 7, 2023 |

Aerial view of the traditional village of Pitoes das Junias and the surrounding agricultural fields, in the Norhern Region of Portugal. Stock image.

Portugal’s environment agency APA has given its final approval for local company Lusorecursos to extract battery-grade lithium in what would be the country’s first such mine, expected to start producing by end-2027, APA said on Thursday.


That puts the project in the northern Montalegre area near the Spanish border and with a planned investment of 650 million euros ($696 million), ahead in the lithium mining race in Portugal. London-based Savannah Resources has so far received a conditional go-ahead for its own Barroso open-pit mine.

With more than 60,000 tonnes of known lithium reserves, Portugal has been seen central to Europe’s efforts to secure more of the battery value chain and cut reliance on imports.

However concerns about the environmental and social impact of lithium mining from nature preservation groups and local communities have led to multiple delays in approving lithium mining projects as well as a mega-auction of new concessions that the government initially planned for 2018.

Lusorecursos was awarded a mining concession in March 2019 but the start of the project was dependent on the final approval of the environmental impact assessment.

In a statement, APA said that it authorized mining in Montalegre, “with the issuance of a favourable environmental impact assessment”, despite the public consultation being “mostly negative regarding the implementation of the project”.

“Similar to what has already occurred in other projects, the assessment developed (by APA) took into account the strategic interest of lithium,” it said, adding that the municipality of Montalegre will receive 75% of the royalties.

A Lusorecursos spokesman said the project, which was approved “without any relevant conditions”, would also include an ore refinery in the vicinity of the mine that will require a separate EIA for its exact location.

Total investment in the mine and refinery is expected to reach around 650 million euros. Lusorecursos plans to start construction in the beginning of 2025 and start producing lithium hydroxide in late 2027.

Most of the Lusorecursos project is underground, but it also involves open-pit mining.

($1 = 0.9345 euros)

(By Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Frances Kerry)

Ghana sovereign wealth fund invests in nation’s first lithium mine

Reuters | September 7, 2023 |

Ewoyaa lithium project. (Image courtesy of IronRidge Resources)

Ghana’s sovereign wealth fund will invest almost $33 million in a lithium mine in the country and take a minority stake in its developer Atlantic Lithium, the company said on Friday.


Ghana’s Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) will buy a 6% stake in Atlantic Lithium’s projects in the country, including Ewoyaa, which is set to be the West African country’s first lithium producing mine, for $27.9 million, Atlantic Lithium said in a statement.

The investment is another example of a surge in interest in companies producing the key electric vehicle battery metal amid the clean energy transition.

In 2021, Piedmont Lithium took a 9% stake in Atlantic Lithium to secure spodumene, or high-purity lithium ore, for which it has a supply contract with electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc.

MIIF will also buy a 3.05% stake in Atlantic Lithium for $5 million, it said. The deal gives it an option to bid for the Ewoyaa project’s available supply contract of the lithium produced, through a competitive process.

“There is a competitive process (for the offtake) which MIIF will also participate in, but on a commercial level,” said Atlantic Lithium chairman Neil Herbert.

“There is an open field of chemical converters, OEMs and major trading groups,” he said.

(By Clara Denina and Felix Njini; Editing by Sharon Singleton)