Savannah Resources (AIM:SAV) on Monday announced that Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, Portugal's environmental regulator, has issued a positive conditional Declaration of Environmental Impact for the proposed Boticas bypass road.
The London-listed company is developing the Barroso Lithium Project in northern Portugal, Europe's largest spodumene lithium deposit and a project designated "Strategic" under the European Critical Raw Materials Act. Receipt of a positive decision on the bypass road was one of the key conditions attached to the main project's own environmental permit, bringing construction and operation of Barroso a step closer.
Savannah said the project can be commissioned and operated before the road itself is completed, avoiding cross-dependencies between the two schedules.
The 16.5km road will connect the project's Northern Access Road, via the regional ER311, to the A24 highway east of Boticas, also linking to the EN103 and EN312 and routing project traffic around the region's largest town while remaining open to the public.
Savannah's Phase 1 Definitive Feasibility Study, completed in July, estimated the road's construction cost at $61m, funded as part of the wider project development. The regulator selected a northern route option over a southern alternative, a decision also backed by the Evaluation Committee's nine other participating bodies and the Municipality of Boticas.
Conditions attached to the approval include keeping the road at least 50 metres from groundwater abstraction points and obtaining a "Declaration of Essential Public Utility" if cork oaks or holm oaks need to be felled.
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"The fact that Savannah can contribute this US$61m road to the local area demonstrates the project's economic robustness and its ability to provide significant socio-economic benefits to all local stakeholders," said chief executive Emanuel Proença.
The bypass road's environmental licensing process now moves to the RECAPE stage, where Savannah and its consultants will carry out monitoring, planning and supporting studies to finalise designs for the northern route in line with the conditional approval.
Savannah expects to submit the RECAPE environmental dossier for the main Barroso project itself in the fourth quarter, with a decision expected around the end of February 2027.