No recommendation
No news or research item is a personal recommendation to deal. Hargreaves Lansdown may not share ShareCast's (powered by Digital Look) views.
(Sharecast News) - Savannah Resources said on Friday it has reached the final stage of acquiring the Aldeia Mining Lease, which would be transferred into the company's sole ownership and integrated into its Barroso Lithium Project in northern Portugal.
The AIM-traded lithium developer said the vendor, Aldeia & Irmo, had instructed Portugal's Directorate General for Energy and Geology to transfer the C-190 Aldeia Mining Lease to Savannah, following the completion of all legal and financial processes linked to the acquisition.
It said the lease would form part of the Barroso Lithium Project, which had been designated a strategic project under the European Critical Raw Materials Act and hosts Europe's largest spodumene lithium deposit.
"We are delighted to have reached the final step in the Acquisition and transfer process with the Aldeia Mining Lease, which will form an integral part of the Barroso Lithium Project in years to come," said chief executive Emanuel Proena.
"This was one of the principal reasons for our recent oversubscribed equity fundraising and it is very pleasing to have reached this milestone before year end.
"We now look forward to the Portuguese State officially transferring the Lease over to Savannah's ownership in due course."
The Aldeia Mining Lease, awarded in December 2024, covers a three-block area adjacent to Savannah's existing C-100 Mining Lease and has an initial duration of 25 years, with options to extend by a further 25 years in total.
Previous drilling by Savannah on Block A defined a JORC-compliant resource of 3.5 million tonnes at 1.30% lithium oxide, including 1.6 million tonnes at 1.31% lithium oxide in the Indicated category.
Block A is located around two kilometres from the proposed processing plant and was included in the project's 2023 scoping study.
Savannah said the Aldeia Block A deposit had the highest lithia grade across the project at around 24% above the global average grade and currently accounts for roughly 11% of the project's global JORC resource on a contained lithium oxide basis.
The company also highlighted additional exploration targets across Blocks A, B and C, which it said offered further upside.
Savannah planned to include the existing Indicated resource at Aldeia Block A in the project's upcoming definitive feasibility study.
Under the terms of the acquisition, the total purchase price for the lease was 3.25m, of which 0.3m had already been paid under previous option agreements.
The remaining 2.95m would be paid to the Portuguese authorities, including an initial 55,000 upon the official transfer of the lease, with the balance settled in 71 monthly instalments.
At 1534 GMT, shares in Savannah Resources were down 3.9% at 3.7p.
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.