Savannah progresses next phase of permitting for Mina do Barroso

Savannah Resources said on Thursday that, as part of the next stage in the environmental impact assessment process for its wholly-owned Mina do Barroso lithium project, it has successfully submitted additional and revised information in response to the expected request it received from the Portuguese regulatory authority, Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente (APA).

The AIM-traded firm said the additional submission further underlined its commitment to developing and operating Mina do Barroso in a “low impact, responsible and sustainable” manner, which it said would bring long-term social, environmental, economic and demographic benefits to all the project's stakeholders.

It explained that APA had an opportunity in the 'pre-phase' stage of the overall approval process to request additional or revised information from the applicant following its initial review of the original submission.

As the company had expected, APA requested additional material, which was compiled by Savannah's technical team and its environmental consultants, and had now been submitted.

Savannah said the pre-phase review timetable, guided to be 80 working days in total, was suspended when the additional information request was received, and had now restarted with the submission of additional information.

Following submission of that information, the company said it expected to receive a ‘declaration of the conformity’ of the environmental impact assessment in the next 20 working days.

That declaration would be followed by a period of public consultation, during which the assessment would also be reviewed by APA's evaluation committee.

Taking into account the Christmas holiday period, Savannah said that phase was expected to begin in early 2021.

Results from the public consultation and the evaluation committee's review would then form the basis for the committee's ‘final technical statement’, which would allow APA to prepare the contents of the environmental impact declaration, and award such a declaration to the project.

That would complete the pre-phase stage of the application process, which would then move to the second stage, expected to take 60 working days, and subject to receipt of approval from the APA, would result in the project receiving its environmental title.

“As prescribed by the approval process for environmental impact assessments in Portugal, we expected a request from APA for additional information and revisions to the format of our original submission following its initial review,” said chief executive officer David Archer, adding that it was a “standard part” of the process.

“Savannah remains committed to developing and operating Mina do Barroso in a way which minimises its impact on the environment and local communities while bringing significant economic benefits over the long term for all the project's stakeholders.”

Archer said that, once the assessment document's conformity was confirmed by APA in the coming weeks, it would be published as part of the public consultation process.

“We look forward to the public release of the study in due course which will provide all stakeholders with a highly comprehensive, fact-based, overview of the project's design, construction, operation and decommissioning in relation to the environment and local communities.”

At 1223 GMT, shares in Savannah Resources were up 0.69% at 2.57p.