"As the owner of the Barroso Lithium Project, the most significant spodumene lithium project in the EU, Savannah is committed to becoming an integral part of Europe’s burgeoning lithium battery supply chain and putting Portugal at the heart of this new European Industry. Savannah is making strong progress in engaging with the European Union’s Lithium Value Chain Initiatives, such as the European Battery Alliance, including its industrial development programme EBA250, and EIT RawMaterials to position the Barroso Lithium Project within the wider European lithium industry."
Savannah Resources
Savannah's role in Europe's rapidly growing lithium & EV market
Extraction
Refining
Active materials
Cell
Battery assembly
Recycling
The European Battery Alliance (EBA) was launched in October 2017 by EC Vice President Maroš Šefčovič. The EBA is building a strategic value chain for batteries in Europe starting with raw materials and progressing all the way to electric vehicles. For Europe, the establishment of a complete domestic battery value chain is imperative for a clean energy transition and a competitive industry. The annual market value is estimated at €250 billion (US$290bn) from 2025 onwards.
The industrial development programme of the EBA, the EBA250, is managed by EIT InnoEnergy a subsidiary of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), itself another body of the European Union. Today, EBA250 is a project-driven community which brings together more than 250 industrial and innovation actors, from mining to recycling, with the common objective to build a strong and competitive European battery industry. https://www.eba250.com/
Following the output of the EBA250 Stakeholder Meetings to date and feedback from EBA250 members (including from Savannah) on how to bridge the gap between financial institutions and businesses, EIT InnoEnergy has, with the support of selected financial institutions and industrial partners, designed a Business Investment Platform (BIP) to accelerate the transactions between investee and investors in the lithium-ion battery value chain including mining. The BIP was launched at an event in Brussels on 25 September 2019 which Savannah staff attended. EIT InnoEnergy is targeting €70 billion of transactions through the BIP between 2019 and 2023.
EIT RawMaterials was initiated and funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. EIT RawMaterials’ vision is to develop raw materials into a major strength for Europe. The mission of EIT RawMaterials is to enable sustainable competitiveness of the European minerals, metals and materials sector along the value chain by driving innovation, education and entrepreneurship.
Through the integration of knowledge from industry, higher education and research drawn from across the entire raw materials value chain, EIT RawMaterials is charged with increasing resource efficiency and improving processes and products, supporting the introduction of new, innovative technologies and rethinking current linear economic models to move towards a circular approach. Further focus areas are to increase human capital in the raw materials sector and promote entrepreneurial education at all levels. EIT RawMaterials' aim is for Europe’s society as a whole to appreciate the value of raw materials and perceive the sector as innovative and attractive.
Savannah is a project member of the EIT Rawmaterials’ LiRef project. The project is validating two conversion processes with the target to develop one robust and flexible process transforming spodumene concentrate into battery grade lithium chemical. It aims to foster the development of a sustainable European value chain. The partners include three future lithium production companies (Savannah Resources, Keliber and European Lithium) as well as Aurora Lithium AB, Outotec, FLSmidth, GTK and Luleå University of Technology.