LISBON - Drilling results at a site in northern Portugal, where London-listed Savannah Resources plans to build a lithium mine, show reserves are richer than previously thought, the company's technical director said on Thursday.
Savannah has already said the deposit of spodumene, a lithium-bearing mineral, is the most significant in Europe and has estimated reserves of 28-million metric tons of high-grade lithium needed for electric car batteries.
Dale Ferguson said test results from eight holes across three new areas suggested the potential to expand in "multiple directions".
With 60 000 metric tons of known reserves, Portugal is already Europe's biggest producer of lithium for the ceramics industry.
The region of Barroso - a Food and Agriculture Organization heritage site - contains one of its richest deposits of the mineral.
Savannah is keen to supply Europe's EV sector, but has encountered opposition from local residents and environmentalists in the form of protests, legal challenges and refusals to sell land.
The company requires around 840 ha for its four-mine project in Barroso, but according to data from September 2023, it had acquired or was in process of acquiring just 93 ha.
It previously said it would, if necessary, ask Portugal's government to authorise compulsory land acquisitions.