Posted by PORTUGALPRESS on November 24, 2016 Gold and lithium...

Posted by PORTUGALPRESS on November 24, 2016
Gold and lithium change Portugal’s fortunes
Tesla boss and internet entrepreneur Elon Musk / Photo: WOLFGANG KUMM/EPA

Conceptual image of how the new Tesla factory would look like

Forget the ‘doom and gloom’ that has been pummelling this country since the start of the economic crisis: news this week is that Portugal is on a roll. We are “on the edge of becoming rich” – very rich – thanks to underground lithium reserves that are now massively in demand for the production of batteries for the developing electric car industry.
Market leader Tesla Motors is already looking seriously at Portugal for its second solar-powered ‘gigafactory’ (its first, in the Nevada desert of the United States, involves an investment of over €5 billion and employs over 10,000 people).
And then there are the new ‘gold strikes’ in the Alentejo... Whichever way you look at it, and in the words of secretary of state for parliamentary affairs Pedro Nuno Santos, Portugal is suddenly looking like “an island of stability” in an increasingly unsettled world.
The lithium issue is perhaps the most gigantic.
A study by American consultants MarketResearch five years ago suggested that Portugal had reserves for another 70 years “at least” – and that the demand for lithium was due to quadruple in the next 10.
Right now, we are the fifth largest exporter of this light, lilac-coloured mineral which is being extracted from Europe’s largest lithium mine in Guarda by Felmica – a company on many Algarvians’ minds five years ago when it threatened to start digging for feldspar on Monchique’s south-facing hills. These plans evaporated in the face of public opposition, and with lithium now the flavour of the decade, Felmica is certainly ‘otherwise engaged’.
By 2020, MarketResearch estimated the world lithium market will be worth €31.5 billion.
Portugal was thus facing a “unique opportunity” to “score points”, said experts.
The only ‘problem’ was that the country only exports lithium in its basest form. There are no ‘smelters’ where it can be extracted from the rock in which it naturally exists and, as a result, Portugal’s share of the global lithium gravy-train has been limited.
But this all looks like it is about to change.
International investors have had Portugal in their sights for a while – eager to enter into partnership deals to open foundries on national soil – and now Tesla is on the scene, with its forward-looking CEO by the unlikely name of Elon Musk saying some incredibly positive things.
Musk – one of the brains behind PayPal, and whose net worth puts him among the 83 richest people in the world – has been “sitting down with prime minister António Costa”, according to motor industry press, and is very keen to sound-out the possibilities of siting his next money-spinning ‘gigafactory’ on national soil.
True, he has also been looking at other possible locations in Spain, France and even Holland, but as these gigafactories are powered by the sun, Portugal remains a very strong candidate.
Talking to investors earlier this month, Musk is reported to have said that his masterplan is to construct two or even three factories in Europe – not only to manufacture electric cars, but lithium batteries themselves.
Technology website Futurebehind.com is leading this week on the five reasons for Musk to choose Portugal.
Writer Rui da Rocha Ferreira cites incredible hours of sunshine, government enthusiasm for new technologies, national ‘experience’ in the car industry, ‘community dedication’ and, perhaps most important, the fact that Portugal is sitting on the largest reserves of lithium in Europe.
In 2014, it extracted 570 tons of the stuff – with the world’s other large producers only found in China, Canada, Australia and South America.
According to Ferreira, Tesla could be making their decision “by this weekend” – but other sources have been more cautious, saying we may not know the outcome before the start of 2017.
Meantime, in the Alentejo – and surprisingly quietly – a company has struck gold.
W Resources, based in London and focused on mining wolfram, copper and gold, announced its ‘strike’ last Friday in the area of São Martinho, Portalegre.
It is the first of nine drill sites, and the company says it is expecting “some very exciting things” for 2017.
Pitching for investors online, Chairman Michael Masterman said W Resources’ objectives are to “step out and significantly expand the size of the JORC gold resource (the Australasian code for reporting exploration results) which currently sits at 110,000 oz”.
Negócios Online reports that this discovery comes in the context of myriad licences awarded to largely Canadian companies throughout the country: Colt Resources in Montemor-o-Novo, Almada Mining – teamed up with Portugal’s EDM – in Vilar Pouca de Aguiar (Vila Real) and Paredes, and Medgold, currently ploughing a million euros into various drill sites in Vila Real and also holding licences for Porto.
Compared to the massive public outcry against the government’s awarding of oil and gas exploration licences, there has been barely a murmur over deals struck with mining companies and data on how much the concessions bring in is hard to find.
But one thing is certain, Portugal’s mineral wealth is very much alive and well, and by all indications means to get kicking.
By NATASHA DONN [email protected]