Lithium mining in Portugal attracts €4.6Bn
Portugal’s lithium sector has an expected investment of around €4.6Bn over the next few years.
From five projects underway, the Savannah mine in Boticas expects to bring in a total of €390 million, the Lusorecursos mine in Montalegre €650 million, the lithium refinery Aurora (Galp/Northvolt) in Setúbal has an investment of €1.1Bn, while the batteries factory from the Chinese company CALB in Sines brings investments to €2Bn and a lithium refinery in Estarreja brings in another €500 million.
“There is a window of opportunity open now if there’s both the interest and intelligence to make the most of this,” Rui Pena do Reis, a geologist told the business daily Jornal Económico.
“In Europe, Portugal has the reputation and the reserves (of lithium ore), and this is well known (Portugal has the largest reserves of lithium in Europe with around 60,000 tonnes) and it is no accident that the EU’s Mário Draghi made reference to the country”, he said.
The university of Coimbra researcher said that one of the crucial questions for the sector was the need for capital. “We need to be open to finance projects. Portugal has a huge mining tradition in the 20th century (Portugal mined wolframium during the war years needed to produced artillery shells used by both the Germans and the allies), but this is not Disneyland, we need wealth creation, and this goes for lithium as well as other resources,” he added.
