Boticas, Vila Real, Portugal, Jan. 10, 2025 (Lusa) - Opponents of the lithium mine are demonstrating on 18 January in Covas do Barroso, Boticas, in northern Portugal, against the administrative easement that allows Savannah Resources to access private and vacant land for lithium prospecting.
"Seven years ago, our community rose up against a lithium mine on their doorstep, prohibiting the company Savannah Resources from accessing common land owned by the parish council and private individuals. This ban lasted until 6 December," says the group 'United in Defence of Covas do Barroso' (UDCB), in a statement published on social media.
An administrative easement is a legal right over another person's property, used by the public authorities or concessionaires for public purposes.
The secretary of state for energy, Maria João Pereira, issued an order, published on December 6 in the official government gazette, authorising the creation of an administrative easement, for a period of one year, which allows the company Savannah to access private land for lithium prospecting.
Shortly afterwards, the UDCB said it did not recognise the legitimacy of the government's decision and Savannah Resources announced that it could "resume the field work and drilling required" for the definitive study (DFS) and the environmental compliance process for the Barroso lithium project, expecting to complete these stages this year.
Now, a demonstration has been called for 18 January, with a meeting point at Covas do Barroso's Cruzeiro square, to "reject the ministerial order of compliance".
"The company has wasted no time (...) This haste comes as no surprise: the prospecting that it has never managed to finish is a fundamental step towards complying with the compliance report (RECAPE) established in the Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) granted by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA). Without prospecting, there is no mine," the statement said.
The United in Defence of Covas do Barroso group says that "50 years after 25 April, the State continues to impose projects by force, indifferent to reality and to people's wishes, calling all this “normal procedure”’.
"But what is happening is anything but normal. It's not normal to place four open-cast mines just metres from three villages. It's not normal to gut the mountains, divert watercourses, destroy a way of life recognised as World Agricultural Heritage, and it's not normal to disregard the voice of the people and act as if they have nothing to say about the place they live in, care for and love," the group adds.
And all this "in the name of decarbonisation policies that don't solve the ecological crisis".
Opponents of mining ensure that the watchword ‘is to resist’, guaranteeing that these are not ‘mere extraction territories’.
The APA made lithium mining at the Barroso mine environmentally viable by issuing a favourable Environmental Impact Assessment in May 2023, including a wide range of conditions.
The company has already said that it plans to start production in 2027.
PLI/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
