Open Mines
In May 2017, lithium mana in Portugal was made public in a report made in three months by public entities with intervention in the mining sector and business entities. In this document, the areas identified with potential are all in the North and Center of Portugal, although prospecting extends to the Alentejo. The biggest interest, and investments already announced, is in Montalegre (Sepeda-Barroso-Alváo and Covas do Barroso-Barroso-Alváo) and in Viana do Castelo (Serra da Agra). The areas of Amarante Seixoso-Vieiros, Murca, Penedono, Almendra, Barca de Alva-Escalháo and Massueime are added. The greater of the areas is referenced in the Gonçalo-Guarda-Mangualde zone and in the Beira Interior Argemela (Covilhá) and Segura (Castelo Branco) and Portalegre. The Spanish border areas are also in the sights, in the area of Cáceres.
The Lithium Report proposes the creation of a cluster of state-owned companies, universities and laboratories, with public and community funding, to promote a consortium between companies that want to value their minerals until the metallurgical phase. The intervention of the State, without direct participation in prospecting and exploration, opens the way for the great mining companies. And to settle wars between these, like the one lived in Montalegre.
Remark: What are they doing to settle the dispute between Luso & NLI ???
The Western Barros
In the barrios of the village of Carvalhais, Montalegre, there is no longer room for secular usufruct of these mountains. Not now, nor in the future, when the Barrosan mountain is scattered in the open. The little and old population, in chorus with the Autarchy, changed the natural and community legacy in the promise of jobs and the return of the mining economy to the exploration of Sepeda. They echo the memories of the wolfram, fueling the war economy, the Germans and Americans in World War II, through the cough of silicosis that billed with death, the development of the region. There are now legal disputes between prospecting licenses between the Australian company Dakota Minerals, under the name of New Lithium, with the Portuguese company Lusorecursos, which postpone the promise of lithium in Montalegre, which they claim to be Europe's second largest reserve. On the ground, the GNR is called to mediate the private security of both companies. The lithium rush in the western barrosáo.
In the neighboring county of Boticas, Savannah Resources' English found fewer setbacks and claimed to have the potential to lead lithium production in Europe with the Barroso open pit mine. Like the other companies, they extend their research to other areas in Covas do Barroso, such as the Serra d'Arga (Caminha, Ponte de Lima and Calvelo), Barca de Alva (Méda and Almendra) and Támega (Caramos). However, since 2005 the Barroso mine has had an approved mining plan, following an Environmental Impact Statement focused on the quartz and feldspar ceramics industry.
