Key Points
The lithium would be used for electric car batteries and is described by the mining company as critical for Europe's transition to green energy...
Common land is key to a dispute over plans for a new opencast mine - the Barroso Lithium Project - which would produce enough lithium for 500,000 electric car batteries a year over its 14-year operational life...
The Barroso mine could be one of the first large-scale mines to supply battery grade lithium within Europe and in May Portugal's Environment Agency gave Savannah Resources, which is based in London, the conditional go-ahead...
"If the national courts don't give us our answer, we'll appeal to the European Court," he says.. The parish council of Covas do Barroso and the common land association have also lodged their own legal cases in an attempt to block the project...
"I see it as a best practice case and we are keen to show that you can do mining in Europe in the 21st Century with the highest standards and to the benefits of local populations," she says.. The rest of Europe will be watching the outcome closely, as pressure grows across the continent to open new mines for raw materials needed for the green transport and energy of the future...
