Member Info for ChameleonMan

I believe the comments were made in relation to any exploitation of EU mineral resources recommended by the CRM Act? Given the number of pressure groups and anonymous submissions it seems clear that local communities are worried that the CRM Act will strengthen the CRM miners’ case.

Ah, template letters doing the rounds of the protest groups? Noticed calls for further local consultations aimed at delaying any progress.

I was more encouraged by “there is potential for the development of new commercial operations based around new resources and exploration of new reserves”
The danger is that the prospect of importing raw material from abroad becomes politically easier than fighting local resistance to mining? As I’ve said before we can’t wait for the EU to get its act together. We need to assume we have the DIA and get on with signing up some supply deals. This is not a product that needs much selling so what’s stopping us?

Do you mean burning Hydrogen as an alternative to jet fuel? I think the only possible competition in the motor vehicle world is fuel cells powered by hydrogen, preferably green. Apart from the costs to produce green hydrogen, the total lack of refuelling supply infrastructure and the unsuitability for anything but long range transport, it sounds great!
I think BEVs are here for the foreseeable future?

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/999533/savannah-resources-having-useful-and-productive-meetings-with-portuguese-regulator-999533.html

Listened very hard but couldn’t hear anything new. Submission to APA in Q1 2023 and then 50 working days to decide either way. Could be as early as February or as late as May?

It’s all about risk/reward. Albemarle would be relatively low risk but returns might be mediocre? SAV has risk but is far from an outsider.

C&EN’s view of the lithium market…
https://cen.acs.org/energy/energy-storage-/Challenging-Chinas-dominance-lithium-market/100/i38

Reminds you how many hopefuls there are in the UK and Europe.

According to key shareholder KevB tweet “Joint license applications going in on Monday with AAL. Quite excited by this and time to grant should be quick as all parties want this done ASAP. Finally we can turn the page and look ffw to what it’s all about. Hitting big copper and hopefully more value accretive deals.”

A rather self-congratulatory keynote by the EU’s “head of foresight”.
“identifying the need to act in a rapid and compelling manner” translates to “In the first quarter of 2023, the European Commission will table a legislative proposal on critical raw materials.” Hardly rapid or compelling?
While the eurocrats attend conferences, the EU car industry is signing up supply agreements with overseas lithium miners . E.g. Mercedes Benz has entered into a definitive supply agreement with Rock Tech (Canada) to supply an average of 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year. https://www.rocktechlithium.com/news/rock-tech-schliesst-euro15mrd.-vertrag-mit-mercedes
Let’s hope Dale isn’t waiting for the EU to deliver anything tangible in the near future.

I seem to recall the auctions are awaiting the outcome of the EIAs on ours and one other project? Experts at can-kicking, Portugov!

The EU is worried about critical materials and as expected is talking a lot about it ( always easier than actually doing something about it!). If I have been feeling impatient of late about waiting until 2025 for production it appears from this that I was grossly over-optimistic?

https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/how-the-eu-plans-to-win-the-global-race-for-critical-raw-materials/

“Another concern that Europe is facing is the expansion of its mining sector. While the Commission plans to boost mining capacities with the Critical Raw Materials Act, one of the main hurdles to achieve this is the permitting process for opening new mines.
One case in point is Portugal, where a permit for a lithium mine has been dragging on for years due to local resistance and environmental concerns.

“If you want to open a mine it takes up to 17 years for the permitting process, which is unacceptably long,” EIT CEO Bernd Schäfer told EURACTIV.

However, to make that happen “we have to have one of the highest mining standards in the entire industry,” he said.

Unlikely. The ball is in SAV’s court to resubmit the EIA by March 2023. In the meantime Portugov seems to be focused currently on exporting Green Energy (Hydrogen).
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/franco-iberian-green-energy-corridor-to-boost-portugals-green-energy-credentials/

Now the Italians are getting in on the act. A rich geothermal source found by Vulcan in Cesano. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lithium-galore-italian-town-finds-huge-deposit-of-vital-electric-car-metal-5zxdbnb29

Looking back to 2013 I believe this cost us about £330,000 from Matilda after the deferred payment was bought out later on. Difficult to work out what we spent on it over the years but it seems like a reasonable deal now we have no use for it. Better to have the cash for future work in Portugal.

Im going to find it difficult to unthink that image IB! I’m sure there must be a TikTok video in that? DA must have fallen victim to the Curse of Strictly before the final denouement? Makes me wonder in retrospect if a hefty compensation package was negotiated?

The full line from that song begins “the nearer the destination ….” and that may be true of SAV as we near the decision date. This is exactly the time to be loading up cheaply. As you say it will be too late once news lands.

Useful summary of the Li mining projects in Europe. SAV has at least 2x the resource of any of the others.
https://emag.directindustry.com/2022/11/03/lithium-what-are-the-main-mining-projects-in-europe/

Another link in the Portuguese EV supply chain falling into place. Much as I hate the involvement of the Chinese, it should shorten time to market as they have leadership in the technical knowhow. The location of the plant could hardly be better and helps to build the economic importance to the local region of lithium and the numbers of those supporting its local extraction.

That’s good to know. I was nursing the worry that it was his roof that we fixed!

I thought it was administered centrally but the mayor is elected to represent the views of the people. If a mayor turns out to be corruptible it opens the door to undue influence and the views of the public subdued as required by he who pays the piper. Sounds like all such relationships will have been investigated along with any unusual contracts and a case put together. Let’s hope that during the inevitable mud slinging, none sticks to SAV.