“Surprised” by communities’ opposition to plans for lithium exploration, CEO of Savannah Resources David Archer has stressed his company means to ‘put back into local society’ and help dynamise northern areas that currently offer very little employment. On a wider basis, Savannah is sponsoring a “very innovative team of talented young Portuguese at the University of Lisbon” which, he says, “are doing great things in the Electric Vehicle space”.
Says Archer, the sponsorship programme “highlights the opportunities in this new industrial sector”.
At pains to stress the economic benefits his company means to bring to Portugal on the back of its Barroso mine project near Vila Real, Savannah’s CEO says the company hopes to start engaging with communities and local authorities in January, with a rigorous ‘facts based’ environmental impact assessment aimed at dispelling many local concerns.
As he explained, Savannah prides itself on ‘best mining practices’, and is ‘working very hard’ to ensure any negative impacts of open-pit mining are either minimised, or eliminated.
Following a recent demonstration during a visit to the Boticas area by secretary of state for energetic transition João Galamba, David Archer told us he had “never seen anything like it”.
“This is a relatively small mining project”, he told us – adding it was really no different to any other kind of mining, quarries for which already exist throughout Portugal, particularly in the north.
