Savannah Resources PLC (AIM:SAV, ETR:SAV, OTC:SAVNF) has updated investors on its ongoing progress towards securing environmental sign-off for the proposed Barroso lithium project in Portugal.
It comes after Savannah entered into an ‘article 16’ review with Portugal's environmental regulator back in July – it is an additional time-limited phase of the review.
The company noted that it has since had several ‘very useful and productive’ meetings with the regulator, and, it has gained a good understanding of the regulator’s requests regarding certain aspects of the project. Talks have so far covered project infrastructure and the management of local water resources.
Further meetings are being scheduled to address a few remaining aspects of the project which the regulator would like to see revised, Savannah noted.
“Over the course of the last two months APA has made clear the aspects of the project which we need to revise to give us the greatest chance of receiving a positive DIA decision,” said Dale Ferguson, Savannah chief executive in a statement.
“As a result, Savannah's team and our consultants are well underway with the redesign work. We expect to continue to meet with APA and other members of its evaluation committee over the coming months so that we capture all the feedback available and thoroughly reflect it in the ongoing redesign work," he added.
Savannah has retained international engineering and environmental consultancies Knight Piésold, Quadrante and VISA Consultores to work on project designs based on requests.
The company also confirmed that it will have up until 17 March 2023 to submit its revised plans to the regulator, after that the regulator will have a maximum of 50 working days to complete its review.