Portugal - LARGEST Lithium Reserves in Europe
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
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Lithium - Portugal’s white gold
Mining Lithium in Portugal is a very controversial subject, but there are some simple facts that can’t be ignored.
Sales and manufacturing of electric cars are growing. Governments want to ban petrol and diesel cars. Electric cars need batteries. Batteries need lithium. There isn’t enough lithium available to meet demand. Portugal has lithium.
The price of lithium has quadrupled in the last year. While Chile, Australia, Argentina, and China are home to the world's highest lithium reserves, other countries also hold significant amounts. Chili holds the world’s largest reserves of lithium, but apart from any other consideration, Chili is a long way away from Europe, and transport alone adds a lot to the cost of delivery to Europe.
China holds massive reserves of lithium but mostly uses it for its own manufacturing of batteries.
Portugal is believed to sit on some of Europe's biggest lithium deposits and as a result has been picked for Europe's biggest lithium mining and treatment plant.
United States - 750,000 MT.
Canada - 530,000 MT.
Zimbabwe - 220,000 MT.
Brazil - 95,000 MT.
Portugal - 60,000 MT.
It’s obvious why Portugal holds a unique advantage for supplying Europe. A UK based mining company Savannah proposed to join forces with Galp to explore what they said will be Europe’s largest lithium mine in Mina do Barroso. This project seems now to be wholly owned by Savannah as Galp did not take up an option they had rights to.
Opposition to the lithium mine has been very strong, but Savannah, advises that its’ wholly owned subsidiary, Savannah Lithium Lda., has been joined as the counter-interested party in litigation brought by the Parish of Covas do Barroso as plaintiff in the Mirandela Fiscal and Administrative Court against the Republic of Portugal and the Ministry of Economy as defendants. The C-100 Mining Lease which contains the Barroso Lithium Project is fully authorised, has a term of 30 years to 2036 and remains in good standing. The advice from Savannah’s lawyers is that the claim is without foundation and will be challenged by Savannah as the counter-interested party alongside exploring all potential options, including making a claim for damages against the plaintiff.
The idyllic landscape near the village of Covas do Barroso is the site of the new open cast lithium mines. Needless to say the local residents are up in arms, in fairness, so would I be if it was near my property. We are all ‘NIMBYS’ at heart (not in my back yard). The chairman of a local action group, Nelson Gomes, says the plan is to mine lithium here in four locations initially. "There will be huge mine dumps, and rivers will be redirected." "The whole landscape and its ecological balance will be destroyed." The group's motto "Yes to life, no to the mine" is seen hanging on more and more facades and traffic signs. "We've been involved in sustainable farming for centuries," Gomes said. "We're small family-run businesses, keeping afloat without much help from the state - and we're not going to give this up just like that; we'll fight against the mine right until the end."
Swedish battery storage company Northvolt and Galp have agreed to set up a joint venture called Aurora with the goal to build Europe’s largest and most sustainable integrated lithium conversion plant. The facility in Portugal is set to have an initial annual output capacity of up to 35,000 tonnes of battery grade lithium hydroxide, a material needed in the production of lithium-ion batteries.
That will be sufficient for batteries in about 700,000 electric vehicles.
Galp and Northvolt are still searching for the best site for their lithium conversion plant, which they envisage to start commercial operations in 2026, pending a final investment decision. Some report suggested that Sines was the preferred location, but other locations nearer the mines are under consideration. The plant could represent an investment of about €700m and create up to 1,500 direct and indirect jobs.
Reality check
It doesn’t take a financial genius to see the obvious facts. Vehicles are going electric. They need batteries, batteries need lithium. Portugal has one of the largest reserved of lithium in Europe. The Barroso Project will produce enough lithium each year for approximately 0.5 million electric vehicle battery packs. Local people will protest, I don’t blame them, but it’s going to happen.
Portugal has ‘white gold’ and Europe wants it.
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It's been awhile since I've watched one of your videos! Glad to see your channel is still doing great!
Thanks a lot bro, I am glad you cameback :)
@@Culturiosity Canada is the area I am monitoring. The drill results coming out of Ontario and Frontier Lithium is a gold mine and a huge potential money-maker for folks. Take a look
As long as it is extracted sustainably I am all for it!🙌
Agreed
You're being naive !
"As long as it's extracted far, far away from where I live, I'm all for it". There, fixed it for you.
Hello, I live in the Alto Minho, not that far from the Serra d'Arga, and I can tell you that everyone, including the mayors, are against its prospection for lithium. And I don't think the Alto Minho is a "rural abandoned region of the interior".
Our town halls started investing in rural tourism and even established a link of museum throughout the district, our strenght here (apart from wine production, corn production, activities linked to sea, etc...) is the beauty of our lands. We are already suffering from eucalyptus, as we became Europe's eucalyptus plantation, which, as you may know, creates litteral green deserts, and now the next step is to eviscerate our moutains, including the tallest of the country? What about the Natural Park of the Serra da Estrela? Isn't it supposed to be a protected area?
I know that a lot of people in the Beira Interior rely on rural tourism too, and are very attached to the beauty of their landscapes. Should we adopt a purely productivist mindset and discard all of that? Don't you feel any attachment to your land? Why is the reliance on agriculture a bad thing for the interior? We already are dependent on foreign food imports to eat, should we be proud of that?
Recently in january a "portaria" allowed new eucalyptus plantations, and a lot of them fall in Trás-os-Montes and the Beira Alta, which, up to recently, managed to stay relatively untouched. Now the next step seems to be lithium. Is being Europe's eucalyptus plantation, and now Europe's battery, a title to be proud of?
Why do the politicians of Lisbon decide for us what is good for us and what isn't?
Why did they decide to attack so aggressively the lands of the interior, thinking it was good because it would provide jobs? Don't they know that these lands suffer a great risk of soil desertification? We're gonna destroy the little nature there is left to massively plant a tree that pumps water out of the soil and to prospect lithium, is that the future of Portugal?
So much for a "green transition", the new tyranny of our era...
Portugal is slowly destroying the little it has left of its soul, and we people of the countryside see our land eviscerated to become the slaves of the city people where they have their tidy little green city parks and feel good about the environment because they drive their bycicles on their tidy little tarred bycicle lanes.
Lisbon basically used the shrek meme, "yeah, this will be detrimental to the interior's nature, but that's a sacrifice we are willing to make" smh
I did speak with people from Minho and half of them do not this to happen, you are right. But do agree that the mines in Guarda should go ahead. As the benefits will be too great to ignore.
@@Culturiosity Well it's easy for the people of my region to say that they're ok with the mines in Guarda, far away from where they live lol but what do the locals think?
Tourism business owners in the Serra da Estrela are not happy about it, landowners are not happy about it, residents are not happy about it.
The politicians from Lisbon should stop thinking that quick money is what the people want. People have an attachment to their land, to their culture and they want to preserve them. There will be benefits on the short term for the companies that extract the lithium, that's for sure, but what will stay on the long term for the inhabitants of this region?
Just think of how ridiculous this situation is. We are going to be destroying unique landmarks in our country (it's not a random mountain chain) and nature (in the Guarda district you have the Faia Brava, the Natural Park of Serra da Estrela, the Natural Reserve of Serra da Malcata and the Natural Park of the International Douro) as well as emiting tons of CO2 in the atmosphere in the name of the ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION!
So much for the preocupation with soil desertification and mass migration of this region!
This just doesn't make any sense and is just purely technocratic, where's the democracy in all that? Who asked the people?
It's like a watermelon, green on the outside, red on the inside...
@@AleaRandomAm but you got to admit that is impossible to live with some kind of pollution nowadays. The only way to fully be protect the environment would be to eradicate humanity, and that is far from being an option.
@@Culturiosity Tell that to the people who are forcing that "ecological transition" on us.
This is a great report thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the support! 😊
I suspect that there is too much regulation in Europe for Muskie Boy. He moved out of California. Stopped expansion in Germany - all because of "over regulation".
Portugal is famous for having difficult to deal with government.
However, this "anti Union, anti regulation" attitude within Tesla is surely is not a good match for the way the portuguese live and work.
Portugal does have a reputation on “taking it’s time” when it comes to legal matters, which I do agree Elon Musk won’t like the slowness
That may be true for a Tesla gigafactory but not for EV factories of other companies
I agree, Portugal, like most of southern Europe, doesn't have the "rush" culture of the US and other european countries. It's not only the government. Although portuguese are highly skilled and qualified, some of the best in Europe, we're also quite laid back (for example we do a lot of pauses and our pauses last longer, and trying to outforce this culture would be challenging to say the least) and I dont expect a factory in Portugal to have the same productivity as the one in Germany. The question is whether this can be compensated by being near battery production and having a lot of free solar power.
Loved your take on the video! you gained a sub
Welcome aboard!
Gosto bastante dos teus vídeos, continua!
Obrigado pelo comentário 🙌 bem vindo ao canal
Vídeo excelente! Bom trabalho! 👍🇵🇹
Muito obrigado pelo apoio! Considera subscrever ou simplesmente deixar um like para ajudar o canal :)
@@Culturiosity já o fiz! Também estou a começar com o meu projecto de história militar em animação… Porra e mesmo difícil arrancar…
Desejo muito sucesso com o teu canal..
@@poltronadehistoriamilitar841 Obrigado e igualmente! Nao desistas!
"Portugal já é o sétimo maior produtor mundial de lítio
Além da produção mineira, que em 2021 ascendeu a 900 toneladas, o país tem as sextas maiores reservas globais deste metal. E está na corrida para ter a primeira refinaria de lítio na Europa."
"Portugal is already the seventh largest producer of lithium in the world
In addition to mining production, which in 2021 amounted to 900 tons, the country has the sixth largest global reserves of this metal. And he's on the run to have the first lithium refinery in Europe."
Pela minha parte podes comer o lítio todo só não quero que me fodas a agua para eu beber e para regar as minhas hortaliças e já que estás tão eufórico com o lítio nas tuas terras é que devia ter esse ouro que assim não vinhas para aqui dar opiniões , essa porcaria de mandar nas terras de outros vai ter que acabar (tu e o Culturiosidade a querer mamar com a desgraça de outros, ide mas é bergar a mola)
They just burnedt that hole area that is on the mining project, check the recently major fires at Serra da Estrela in Portugal, theres nothing sustainable about lithium here, leave it to Australia.
Adorei o vídeo, ganhas-te mais 1 subscritor assíduo
Obrigado! 🥹
You said "ilhas selvagens" with an perfect prenouncement, congrads for real.
I’m portuguese 😃, gostas do canal?
Just found out aboyt your channel.
Great video 😀
Thank you and Welcome aboard!
Absolutely horrific... given the danger of lithium extraction... not to mention the explosivity of the batteries... ask your local fireman what he thinks about putting out lithium battery fires... oh, didn’t they mention that - highly toxic for the whole evacuated neighbourhood... who’s done the research on lithium and its proposed use... anyone 🤔 or do we just take ‘their’ word for it 🙄
There are a lot of protests to keep the mining out tbf
This video is wrong.
You can find online that Portugal has 60000 MT of lithium deposits.
Whereas Ukraine has over 150 to 200 million MT of lithium deposits.
Portugal does not have the largest reserve of lithium in Europe. Rather it has a relatively puny amount of lithium. To add to this, most of these Lithium deposits are in or near to cities in northern Portugal. The residents of Portugal will never allowed mining companies to destroy their cities to mine Lithium especially when the financial return is so weak.
amp.france24.com/en/live-news/20211221-portuguese-lithium-fuel-of-europe-s-electric-vehicle-revolution
Other European lithium mines are.
European lithium Austria
Infinity lithium Spain
European metals holdings Czech Republic
Vulcan energy resources Germany
Do you have an idea of when they will start mining the Barroso mine?
You know how things are in Portugal… they always say “next month” and it never happens
🇷🇸🇵🇹-Stop Rio Tinto
I'm against, the extraction will destroy nature and small villages !
And this is the reason why Portugal doesn’t get more powerful...when we have oil and lithium opportunities we just give up on that...
@@ricardomadleno564 Portugal is a small country of 10 millions inhabitants. There are far more things in this country that make it unique. For instance, with the cork industry this country can conjugate industry with ecology and that's a good thing. Keep in mind that nature is like a library, the knowledge we can get from it is far more valueable than what's beneath our feet. And also Portugal Zee is huge and there are wealth inside.
@@SiRcErOn_YuLmEr Portugal has Europe’s largest Lithium reserves...do you know how big of a revolution that means for Portugal’s economy? Fossil fuels are ending and the world is gonna run on electronic devices that are built with Lithium batteries...this is a jackpot for Portugal it would be tremendously dumb and irresponsible to not take advantage from it gladly the government has already confirmed that we will be extracting it starting from 2026. It would also be irresponsible to not help build lithium batteries that are going to be essential to end fossil fuel dependence that hurt our environment so much.
@@ricardomadleno564 And there is gold also in Portugal. But only Australian or Brittish companies took advantage of it. We already know that the locals would get nothing from that. Plus lithium will soon be useless as new technologies are beeing developped without it. And what's a jackpot today can also be a tremendous debt in the futur. What's irresponsaible and unfair is to destroy environment and take the properties of poor people. In addition, those reserves are in natural protected areas ! Let what's in earth stay at peace.
@@ricardomadleno564 Mining is worse for ecology than using oil.
Nothing will happen, we / our Politians will fuck up yet again. Hope I am wrong, but I don't think.
Are there no engineers doing the math of thr water cost of this mine? I just found out about it, we in Portugal dont have the water needed for the mining of 25 000 tons of lithium, thats around 2 500 000 000 liters of water (can be salt water, but still ridiculous). lowest expected water usage is 20 000 000 liters, and this claim was not given calculations to back it up, just speculation.
Furthermore, the agreement only restricts the use of SOME river water, if the company is allowed to use underground water it would still have a massive damage to the ecosystem.
People are being very hypocritical and unlogical in most criticism made against these plans
But developing country mentality is what we have here. Tradition=Unquestionable, how stupid
I believe people that live in those areas just don’t like to being told what to do by mens in suit from the capital… and also believe they won’t benefit from it, only big companies/ international companies will
@@Culturiosity While I understand that, they literally will benefit from that
The only god argument I've seen was the one saying Serra da Estrela is a protected zone. I agree with that.
Rest is just saying shit like "it's selling our soul/culture/whatever the fuck they want to say for money", like it's money we desesperately need and it's literally good for the enviroment in general. Everything we do will harm the enviroment in 1 way or another, therefor we have to chose the options that harm the least and compensate the most.
But I still think the final decision should be only from the locals even tho I am in favor of the project
What an incredibly ignorant and stupid comment. Perhaps if they were mining your local area you would think differently.
Please bring Tesla Gigafactory to Portugal!
You you dont live there dont talk bullshit, selling your beautiful forest and mountains for a shit factory from a shit company.
@@arturjcrebelo3275 vivo sim!
Mas tu achas? a Tesla é conhecida pelas suas péssimas condições de trabalho e desrespeito pelas leis laborais. A CGTP ia estar a chamar greves a cada 3 dias.
@@Duck-wc9de Nos media isso é sempre exagerado, o que não é exagerado é a atenção que a Tesla tem para com o ambiente e os trabalhos que iria trazer para a região. Na minha opinião a vinda da Tesla para Portugal ia trazer muitos mais benefícios do que desvantagens, e não vejo grandes razões para a vinda correr mal
Only if they do affordable electric cars, like 20k max. Otherwise, no.
O problema aqui são os termos dos contratos estabelecidos, são áreas de reserva natural , e com isso acarreta responsabilidades acrescidas. Não é barato de todo a recuperação das áreas futuramente degradadas pela exploração desta riqueza (lítio) pelo que terá de ter um pagamento financeiro acrescido quando as mesmas fecharem portas, e por sua vez de que maneira isso afetará a riqueza da região envolvente que depende da zona para os seus interesses tanto a nível de interesse da região e áreas envolventes. Nos contratos estabelecidos também é de rever onde será feita o processamento da mesma, vale sublinhar que caso não sejam processadas em PT será então servido de "mão beijada" aos privados que ganharem então o concurso.