Developer Savannah Resources has received strong commercial interest in the Barroso lithium project, in Portugal, the company reported on Monday, stating that it had appointed UK bank Barclays and Australian financial services firm Barrenjoey Advisory to jointly act as advisers to identify partners for the project.

Savannah in July initiated a strategic partnering process, inviting interested parties to submit proposals outlining how they could assist the company with financing the development of the mine as part of a long-term commercial relationship.

“The level of interest we have received in our strategic partnering process so far is extremely pleasing,” said CEO Emanuel Proença.

“This process has resulted in attractive draft proposals from players situated at a number of different points along the lithium battery value chain, and from groups looking to gain exposure to this critical new industry. The level of interest in our project reaffirms its quality and strategic value for the European lithium battery value chain over the long term,” he added.

Proença said the next task would be to analyse and evaluate all the proposals received and identify those parties which were not only willing to support Savannah in securing the finance required to construct the project, but which could also offer additional benefits to Savannah and all its stakeholders through a future partnership.

This could include bringing complementary skills which can be applied to the project or by providing additional business opportunities to Savannah, he said in a statement.

The Barroso project is Europe’s largest spodumene lithium deposit.

A scoping study completed in June 2023 has reconfirmed that the Barroso project has the potential to be a major European producer of spodumene concentrate. It is based on a mine- and concentrator-only development for the production of spodumene concentrate.

Over the estimated 14-year mine life, the project will have a throughput of about 1.5-million tonnes a year, based on a resource of 20.5-million tonnes at 1.05% lithium oxide. Potential production is estimated at 191 000 t/y of 5.5% spodumene.

Initial capital expenditure is estimated at $236-million.