Boticas, Portugal, Jan. 27, 2025 (Lusa) - The Barroso Future Association, created in Boticas, wants to act as a go-between in negotiations with the company that wants to exploit the lithium mine and ensure that the benefits of exploitation are shared with the community.
The new association will be publicly presented on Wednesday in Boticas, Vila Real district, where the Savannah company wants to explore the Barroso lithium mine.
The project has been contested locally by mayors and residents who have joined together in the association Unidos em Defesa de Covas do Barroso (UDCB).
Now, the Future of Barroso Association has been created, which, in a statement sent to the Lusa news agency, says that its members accept the "project on principle".
"Like many people in the region, we don't reject the project on principle, and we want to accompany it in dialogue with the developers to ensure that it is done well, that the benefits of exploitation are shared with the community, that this project will help to counteract the trend of population desertification that the municipality of Boticas and the region are facing and that it will guarantee new economic opportunities for everyone, especially in Barroso," it said.
The association, it explained, "aims to represent all those in the communities of the municipality of Boticas who want a more prosperous future with more opportunities".
"We will be the voice of those who believe in dialogue and development as ways of building a better region".
The association aims "to build a constructive dialogue by serving as an interlocutor on behalf of the community in negotiations with the company responsible for the Barroso lithium project, which aims to exploit the natural wealth of Trás-os-Montes".
Opponents of the project point to its impacts on the essentially agricultural way of life, the Barroso World Agricultural Heritage Site, the environment, and, among other things, water.
On 18 January, they demonstrated against the administrative easement granted by the government, which allows Savannah access to private and common land for one year for lithium prospecting.
Following the decision by the secretary of state for energy, Maria João Pereira, Savannah Resources announced that it could "resume the field work and drilling required" for the definitive study and the environmental compliance process for the Barroso lithium project, and expects to complete these stages in 2025.
The company has already said that it plans to start production in 2027.
The Portuguese Environment Agency made lithium mining at the Barroso mine environmentally viable by issuing a favourable conditional Environmental Impact Statement in May 2023.
PLI/ADB // ADB.
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