The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recognized the Barroso region as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System in 2018. "These agroecosystems are inhabited by communities living in an intricate relationship with the land. These evolving sites are characterized by agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge, invaluable cultures and landscapes, sustainably managed by farmers, herders, fisherfolk, and forest people in ways that contribute to their livelihoods and food security." (Photo from CCDR-Norte)
The Portuguese government authorized establishment of an administrative easement for one year over parcels of land for carrying out survey and other related work to Savannah Lithium's concession contract, Mina do Barroso, for the exploration of quartz, feldspar and lithium in the Municipality of Boticas, Vila Real District, the legal notice read in Diário da República on December 6.
In the meantime, German export credit agency, Euler Hermes, has signed a non-binding letter of interest for a project finance loan guarantee of up to $270 million for development of Savannah's Barroso mine, reported Mining Weekly (December 3).
Savannah Lithium estimated that the expenditure associated with the project (investment, renovation, operation and closure) would lead to an increase in the gross value of national production of €420 million in the investment phase and €210 million per year in the development phase of the 16-year project, according to the document, Economic and Social impacts Update, in its revised Environmental Impact Assessment submitted to the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) in March 2023.
Also, in related activity, the government's European Regulation on Critical Raw Materials Working Group, set up in July, presented its first Action Plan proposals, reported Diário de Notícias (December 3). Among its proposals are the "granting of priority status to strategic projects of critical raw materials" and the identification of "large companies" operating in this sector in Portugal.
The Ministry of the Environment and Energy said that from the list of critical and strategic raw materials listed by the European Union,
"Portugal produces copper (and zinc) concentrates in the Neves-Corvo (15 kilometers southeast of Castro Verde in Beja District) and Aljustrel mines (a closed zinc/lead mine also in Beja District) and tungsten (wolfram) concentrates in the Panasqueria mine (Fundão and Covilha municipalities in the Serra da Estrela mountains), and has potential for new explorations of these and other raw material as well as for the exploration of lithium minerals in the central
and northern areas of the country."
The government's Action Plan caused an outcry by communities already fighting for years for their survival with court cases, petitions, peace protests, educational encampments, and exchanges with national and international groups.
Land Easements
The Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) issued a favorable opinion on the Environmental Impact Assessment on May 30, 2023, for the proposed Barroso mine expansion from 542 to 593 hectares project.
The legal notice in Diário da República regarding land easements for Savannah Lithium read:
"The establishment of an administrative easement, for a period of one year from the publication of this order in the Official Gazette, over the plots identified in the area map and the parcel plan, attached to this order.
"2 — The current and subsequent owners, lessees or any holders of any title of the plot of land in question are obliged to respect and acknowledge the burden established.
"3 — The current and subsequent owners, lessees or any holders of any title of the plot of land in question are also obliged to consent to access and occupation, by the concessionaire, of the aforementioned plots over which the easement applies, for the purpose of carrying out the survey work and other related work necessary for the preparation of the Environmental Compliance Report of the Implementation Project."
"The concessionaire justifies the need to access these lands by complying with the terms of the DIA (Environmental Impact Report) obtained, in particular with need to define, in detail, the areas and volumes of exploration, in order to present the Environmental Compliance Report of the Execution Project (RECAPE) to the APA (Portuguese Environment Agency)," read the legal notice in Diário da República.
"The process was instructed by the concessionaire with all the necessary elements and the owners were notified and granted the right to comment on the easements.
"A preliminary hearing of the interested parties was held."
Ten proprietors own the land. Their addresses are in Covas do Barroso, Valpaços or Alturas do Barroso, with the exception of one, whose address is unknown. The land and owners are as follows:
38 parcels (8,200 square meters), owned by Comunidade Local Baldios (common land), Covas do Barroso;
2 parcels (600 square meters), owned by Cabeça de Casal da Herença de Abel dos Santos Alves;
1 parcel (600 square meters), owned by Cabeça de Casal da Herença de Maria de Jesus Gomes Pires da Fonte;
1 parcel (200 square meters), owned by Cabeça de Casal da Herença de Augusta Fernandes;
1 parcel,(200 square meters), owned by Cabeça de Casal da Herença de Francisco Fernandes Touças;
1 parcel (1,400 square meters), owned by Cabeça de Casal da Herença de Manuel Gonçalves;
2 parcels (600 square meters ), owned by Albina Pires Martins;
1 parcel (400 square meters), owned by Daniel Pereira Loureiro, 1/2, and Manuel Pires Loureiro, 1/2;
1 parcel (200 square meters), owned by Daniel Pereira Loureiro;
1 parcel (800 square meters), owned by Elio Gonçalves.
Land Acquisition
According to the document, Community Profile and Social Identification Issues, of Savannah Lithium's March 2023 revised Environmental Assessment Impact:
“The acquisition of some of these lands by the (proposed) project is a potential source of tension with local communities and organizations, and places that defend the interests of the (baldios) common land.”
The document said that Savannah would minimize land acquisition.
“Land acquisition began in 2021, aided by Landfound, a company that specialized in mapping subcontracted by Savannah Resources, targeting 80 hectares of land on private farms.
“Revised estimates are that 280 hectares of private agricultural land will be acquired by the project. So far, 89 private properties of interested sellers were acquired by the proposed project, with around 300 still to be acquired. The procurement process has been suspended in accordance with Article 16 of the APA and (would) only be resumed after the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) approval. . . .
“Where there is a possibility of expropriation under a mining lease agreement, and where interested buyers and willing sellers do not apply, the conditions exist for involuntary resettlement. . . . "
There are difficulties in estimating the amounts of private land to be acquired because sometimes private lands are not properly registered and measured, and some properties are not claimed by anyone.
For this, the process needs to rely on old documentation and the help of community members. This has been a source of tension between associations of baldios, or common land, and private owners, with complaints from both interested parties that one is trying to claim another’s property as its own. Interviews with community members pointed to ongoing lawsuits, according to the revised document.
Who Is Savannah Lithium
Savannah Lithium requested creation of the administrative easement over the demarcated properties, according to Diário da República.
Savannah Lithium is a subsidiary of Savannah Resources, which is listed on the Alternate Investment Market (AIM) in the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller firms, reported Mining (May 13, 2021).
Significant shareholders, as of December 3, holding more then 3 percent of the British company were AMG Lithium BV (15.77 percent); Al Marjan Ltd (12.69 percent); Mário Nuno dos Santos Ferreira (10 percent); Grupo Lusiaves SGPS (6.02 percent), Slipstream Resources International PTY Ltd (3.37 percent), according to Savannah Resources' website.
Lithium Mining Opposition
During its six years of opposition to Savannah Lithium, the local coalition in Vila Real District has broadened from the United in Defense of Covas do Barroso (UDCB) and Montalegre com Vida into a coalition of 26 local, national and international supporting groups.
A United Nations envoy opposed the mine and agreed that Barroso should not become "a sacrifice zone".
United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, David R. Boyd, visited Portugal in September 2022. The document on his findings was presented on March 9 during the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, reported Publico (March 26, 2023):
“It is necessary ‘to identify and restore any sacrifice zones’ – areas of intense pollution or environmental degradation – “where private profits and interests have taken priority over human rights and the environment, also preventing the creation of future sacrifice zones.
“This is a general call for attention, but takes into account a specific case: the (proposed) future exploitation of lithium by the company, Savannah Lithium, in an open-pit mine in the village of Covas do Barroso (Boticas), a region classified as World Agricultural Heritage by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), (of which there are only 89 in 28 countries).
“Despite the great need for this mineral to carry out the ongoing ecological transition in Europe and the world, “large resource extraction projects that may violate human rights, in the name of green transition, are contrary to sustainable development, as several national and regional courts and commissions have concluded.
“These ‘sacrifice zones’, reads the report, “are completely incompatible with the human right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment”, enshrined in article 66 of the Portuguese Constitution, and with the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, in accordance with Resolution 76/300 of the United Nations Assembly.
The mining of lithium, a key element in electric cars, telephones and computers, has been a fraught issue not only in Portugal, but also elsewhere in Europe, and North and South America. Some, mostly companies and governments, argue that mining lithium is an environmentally green way forward and others, mostly residents, plead to save their environment, livelihoods and patrimony. Living in the foothills of the Serra da Estrela, which until three years ago had been considered for lithium mining, I side with the latter.
The majority of the world’s lithium is mined in Australia and South America, and more than 97 percent of it is refined in China, reported Inside Climate News (November 7, 2021).
Portugal is being touted as a key player in the European Union’s transition to green energy. Currently, the European Union is wholly dependent on imported battery-grade lithium in an increasingly competitive global market.
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