Savannah Resources (AIM:SAV), developer of the Barroso Lithium Project in Portugal, has signed three benefit-sharing agreements with local communities that hold communal land known as "baldios".
The agreements cover the Baldio of the villages of Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga, the Baldio of Couto de Dornelas, and the regional Secretariat of the Baldios of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (SBTMAD).
Barroso is designated a Strategic Project under the European Critical Raw Materials Act and hosts Europe's largest spodumene lithium deposit.
The Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga agreement covers 150 hectares in the Serra do Pinheiro, including Blocks A and C of the C-190 Mining Concession, which host a JORC-compliant 3.5 million tonne resource and 1.6 million tonne reserve.
It runs for an initial ten years, extendable annually for five more, with rent indexed to inflation.
The Dornelas addendum extends a relationship in place since 2020 covering access roads on the western end of the C-100 Mining Concession.
The SBTMAD memorandum establishes a technical partnership over roughly 100 hectares of Savannah-owned agroforestry land, covering forest management and wildfire prevention, funded by a dedicated technical team and a four-wheel-drive vehicle with first-response firefighting kit.
Savannah now holds land access agreements with two of the three baldios managing land across the project's mining concessions.
The Baldio of Covas do Barroso, whose leaders coordinate a local protest group, has not engaged with the company despite an offer made in September 2023.
"This is not simply about securing access to land, it is about recognising that the baldios belong to the communities that have managed them for generations," said chief executive Emanuel Proença.
Communities will gain seats on the project's Local Consultative and Monitoring Committee and the Barroso Lithium Foundation, which will hold a minimum annual budget of €500,000 from first production.
Savannah has separately purchased 111 land plots from private owners, with 16 more under promissory contracts, and has ring-fenced £2.4 million for compulsory purchase where agreements cannot be reached in time.
News Intelligence what this means for the company
Savannah has secured binding benefit-sharing agreements with two of three baldio communities holding communal land across the Barroso project, locking in access to 150 hectares in Serra do Pinheiro (covering Blocks A and C with 3.5 Mt resource and 1.6 Mt reserve) for ten years, extendable to fifteen. This resolves a material permitting and social-license risk: the Baldio of Covas do Barroso—whose leaders coordinate local opposition—remains unsigned, but Savannah now holds agreements with the two largest baldio holders and has purchased or contracted 127 private plots, with £2.4 million ringfenced for compulsory purchase, substantially de-risking the land assembly needed before the targeted 2028 first production.
Land access was a critical path item to construction start in 2027 and first production in 2028; these agreements materially reduce execution risk on the development timeline and support the $913 million NPV economics modelled in the Phase-1 DFS. The holdout by Covas do Barroso remains a tail risk, but Savannah's compulsory purchase reserve and the agreements now in place suggest the company has a credible path to full site control.
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