Environmental groups sue EU commission over Portugal’s lithium mine

Environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the European Commission over its decision to grant preferential “strategic” status to Portugal’s Barroso lithium mine project, developed by London-listed Savannah Resources.

Local residents’ association United in Defence of Covas do Barroso and ClientEarth group said they filed the lawsuit with the EU’s Court of Justice after Brussels refused to reconsider its 2025 decision under the Critical Raw Materials Act.

That was “despite detailed evidence showing the project poses serious environmental, social and safety risks”, they said in a statement.

Projects like Savannah’s in Portugal are seen as a key test of Europe’s ability to produce lithium and other materials seen as essential to the energy transition, but they often face opposition from environmental groups.

Barroso has been a World Heritage site for agriculture since 2018.

The groups said that securing access to critical raw materials “cannot come at the expense of environmental protection, public participation or community rights.”

“The energy transition must be based on law, science and justice – not political shortcuts that turn rural regions into sacrifice zones,” they said.

Savannah is developing the mining project in northern Barroso, which has estimated resources of the spodumene deposit — one of the lithium-bearing minerals — exceeding 39 million metric tons, making it the largest such deposit in Europe.

Last month, the Portuguese government awarded a 110 million euros ($130 million) grant to the project.

The Portuguese government hopes to launch a long-delayed tender for lithium prospecting licences this year, seen as key to building a domestic lithium value chain and cutting Europe’s reliance on imports from countries including China.

($1 = 0.8473 euros)

(By Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Susan Fenton)