No lithium mining in Portugal without environmental impact assessment

Portugal’s environment minister said there would be no lithium mining in Boticas without an environmental impact assessment, explaining that the government saw the business from a perspective of added value.

If the company that owns the prospection licence wants to move into production, it will have to conduct an environmental impact assessment and only then will it be possible to see whether there are conditions for lithium mining or not João Pedro Matos Fernandes said in Guimarães, on the sidelines of a conference about plastics, organised by Minho University.

The minister said that lithium mining was necessary to ensure there was an industrial cluster to process the lithium and allow for mobility to be electrified as part of the energy transition.

The minister of the environment and energy transition said lithium mining should be seen from two points of view. Firstly the role that lithium as a raw material can have in battery construction and secondly from the added value perspective, he added.

Source: theportugalnews