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Savannah ResourcesAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 4519U  Savannah Resources PLC  26 February 2026

 

26 February 2026

Savannah Resources Plc

(AIM: SAV) ('Savannah', or the 'Company')

 

Project Update

Savannah makes further progress against strong market backdrop

 

Savannah Resources Plc, the developer of the Barroso Lithium Project in
Portugal, a 'Strategic Project' under the European Critical Raw Materials Act
and Europe's largest spodumene lithium deposit (the 'Project'), is pleased to
provide an update on various recent Project, Company and market developments.

 

Highlights:

·    Definitive Feasibility Study ('DFS') & RECAPE workstreams:

o  Bypass Road: The revised bypass road design has now been completed and
submitted to the Portuguese authorities.

o  Power line: the mechanical and electrical calculations, as well as
drawings of the relocation plan for the overhead power line for the Project
have been approved by E-Redes, the national electricity distribution network
operator.

·    Grant agreement next steps: Savannah is now working with AICEP, the
Portuguese Trade & Investment Agency, to align compatibility of the Grant
with any future Project Financing and/or other funding options for the
Project's development. This follows the signing of the investment contract for
the up to €110m non-reimbursable State Grant (see 21 January 2026 RNS).

·    Stakeholder engagement:

o  Memorandums of Understandings ('MoUs') have been signed with four key
local stakeholder groups. Additional MoUs are expected to be signed in the
coming weeks and further information on these MoUs will be provided in due
course.

o  Savannah has so far held four of the five scheduled public meetings in
February to update residents on the Company's plans and to continue to build
relationships.

·    Land acquisition and Land management:

o  Savannah has received indications from more landowners of their intention
to sell their properties to the Company. In addition, more than 20% of owners
holding land where the Project will require access agreements to realign the
power line have already provided their authorisation to proceed with the
execution of the works.

o  Savannah remains engaged with the Government ministry and agencies
involved in the temporary land access process and will provide an update on
this matter as required. The Company continues to expect this approval in the
near term.

·    Exploration: Rock chip assays from the recent surface exploration
work at the 600m+ long Carvalha da Bácora pegmatite target (see 15 January
2026 RNS) included 1.92% Li(2)O, 1.80% Li(2)O and 3.79% Li(2)O, showing this
pegmatite's potential as a future resource target.

·    Lithium prices: After some volatility in late January and early
February, spodumene prices are currently in the c.US$1,900-2,298/t range (6%
Li(2)O concentrate), representing a very compelling price level for the future
development of Savannah's Project.

·    Commercial Interest: Against the continuing positive market backdrop,
Savannah is engaged in discussions with a growing number of parties around its
unallocated spodumene production.

·    Investor and industry marketing: Following a successful trip to the
Mining Indaba conference in South Africa in early February, Savannah will be
attending and speaking at the Fastmarkets Battery Raw Materials conference in
Shanghai, 24-26 March, as the Company continues to raise awareness of its
Project among investors and potential partners in key international markets.

 

Emanuel Proença, CEO of Savannah said, "Savannah continues to make good
progress towards development of the Barroso Lithium Project. We have advanced
some key infrastructure aspects of the Project in recent weeks along with
other important tasks such as land ownership and formalised stakeholder
engagement. Overall, we are building a solid foundation for the next phase of
development. Encouraging lithium market conditions and growing commercial
interest further reinforce the Project's long‑term strategic value. This is
the year of DFS and preparing for construction of our Project. We remain fully
committed to delivering Europe's leading spodumene lithium resource
responsibly and efficiently, and the months ahead present significant
milestones and opportunities as we move closer to realising the Project's full
potential."

 

 

Further information

Please find below additional details on some of the topics covered in the
highlights section.

 

DFS & RECAPE workstreams:

Savannah continues to work towards completing the DFS and RECAPE
(environmental licence compliance confirmation exercise) later this year.
Recent progress includes:

·    Infrastructure:

o  Bypass Road: The revised bypass road design has now been completed by
Savannah and its consultants and submitted to the Portuguese authorities.
Submission of the revised bypass road design initiates the 150-business day
assessment period available to APA. Once APA confirms the bypass road
Environmental Impact Assessment ('EIA') is compliant with its application
requirements, the documentation will be made public and a statutory
30-business day public consultation period will commence. During this time,
Savannah expects the bypass road EIA, the Preliminary Design and supporting
documents to be available on APA's website. A favourable Environmental Impact
Statement ('DIA') on the bypass road proposal will enable Savannah to advance
to the bypass road RECAPE and Detailed Design phase.

o  Power line: the mechanical and electrical calculations, as well as project
drawings of the relocation plan for the overhead power line for the project
have been approved by E-Redes, the national electricity distribution network
operator. As a result, the licencing process by the Directorate-General for
Energy and Geology ('DGEG') will begin shortly as will the mandatory request
process to various public entities for their opinion on the power line design.

·    Mining: The optimised pit designs and mining schedule have been
received from Savannah's consultant, Snowden Optiro, and are now being
reviewed internally. This places Savannah on track to complete its maiden JORC
Reserve estimate in the near future.

Stakeholder engagement:

·    As Savannah deepens its commitment to local stakeholders in parallel
with the Project's development, Memorandums of Understandings ('MoUs') have
now been signed with four key local stakeholder groups. These MoUs reflect the
constructive relationships Savannah is building within the Project area and
provide a clear framework for practical, mutually beneficial cooperation
between the Company and the Project's local stakeholders. Additional MoUs are
expected to be signed in the coming weeks with other key local and regional
stakeholder groups identified in the Project's Stakeholder Engagement Plan.
Further information on these MoUs will be provided in due course.

·    Savannah has now held four of the five public meetings scheduled for
February, in the communities of Canedo (Municipality of Ribeira de Pena),
Covas do Barroso, Dornelas and Vilar e Viveiro (Municipality of Boticas). The
fifth meeting is being held today in Boticas. These sessions are designed to
continue to update local residents on the Company's Project development plans,
ongoing stakeholder engagement programme, and to gather community input to
co-create the Livelihood Restoration Plan currently under development. They
also provide an opportunity to address questions, concerns, and suggestions as
Savannah continues to build relationships through two way dialogue. Savannah's
community team is sincerely grateful to all participants and will review,
integrate, and respond to the feedback received.

 

Exploration: Following on from the surface exploration work undertaken on the
600m+ long Carvalha da Bácora pegmatite target (see 15 January 2026 RNS),
Savannah has now received assays results from rock chip samples taken from
various surface outcrops. These confirm lithium mineralisation and include
assays of 1.92% Li(2)O, 1.80% Li(2)O and a very impressive 3.79% Li(2)O.
Further investigation of this pegmatite will now take place as part of the
wider, long term exploration programme Savannah is conducting across the
Project to generate further significant resource upside once the Project is in
operation.

 

Lithium price movements and market developments:

·    Having moved beyond the US$2,300/t level during late January,
spodumene prices (6% Li(2)O concentrate) then saw a correction into early
February as part of the widespread downward movement across the metals sector
and wider capital markets at that time. Having stabilised ahead of the Chinese
New Year holidays, prices moved up significantly on the resumption of trade in
China earlier this week with spodumene presently reported in the
c.US$1,900-2,298/t range. This represents a very compelling price level for
future development of Savannah's Project.

·    Savannah was also pleased to be included in the Volta Foundation's
2025 Battery Report as an emerging player in the upstream section of the
battery value chain. The Volta Foundation is 'the world's largest network of
battery professionals' with over 75,000 battery professional members and 200
member companies.

 

Commercial Interest:

·    In addition to the commercial discussions it has underway, the
Company has also signed up to the EU Energy and Raw Materials Platform, which
has been created by the European Commission as part of its overall Critical
Raw Materials Strategy and the RESourcesEU Action Plan. This platform, which
has been designed to bring together buyers and sellers of all critical raw
materials is expected to begin 'matching' buyers and sellers from July 2026
onwards.

 

Competent Person and Regulatory Information

The information in this announcement that relates to exploration results is
based upon information compiled by Mr John Morris Pereira, Exploration Manager
of Savannah. Mr Pereira is a Member of the European Federation of Geologists
(Recognised Professional Organisation responsible for issuing the
Eurogeologist title - EurGeol), Master in Resources Evaluation, and has
sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and
type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is
undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the December 2012
edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results,
Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves" (JORC Code) and is a Qualified Person
under the AIM Rules. Mr Pereira consents to the inclusion in the report of the
matters based upon the information in the form and context in which it
appears.

 

Regulatory Information

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law
by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is
disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of
MAR.

 

**ENDS**

 

Follow @SavannahRes on X (Formerly known as Twitter)

Follow Savannah Resources on LinkedIn

 

For further information please visit www.savannahresources.com
(https://savannahresources.com/) or contact:

 

 Savannah Resources PLC                                            Tel: +44 20 7117 2489

 Emanuel Proença, CEO
 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Advisor & Broker)       Tel: +44 20 3470 0470

 David Hignell/ Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance)

 Grant Barker/Abigail Wayne (Sales & Broking)

 Canaccord Genuity Limited (Joint Broker)                          Tel: +44 20 7523 8000

 James Asensio / Charlie Hammond (Corporate Broking)

 Ben Knott (Sales)
 Portugal Media Relations

 Savannah Resources: Antonio Neves Costa, Communications Manager   Tel: +351 962 678 912

 

About Savannah

Savannah Resources is a mineral resource development company and the sole
owner of the Barroso Lithium Project (the 'Project') in northern Portugal. The
Project is the largest battery grade spodumene lithium resource outlined to
date in Europe, was classified as a 'Strategic Project' by the European
Commission under the Critical Raw Materials Act in March 2025 and was approved
for a Portuguese State development Grant of up to €110m in January 2026.

 

Through the Project, Savannah will help Portugal to play an important role in
providing a long-term, locally sourced, lithium raw material supply for
Europe's lithium battery value chain. Once in operation the Project will
produce enough lithium (contained in c.190,000tpa of spodumene concentrate)
for approximately half a million vehicle battery packs per year and hence make
a significant contribution towards the European Commission's Critical Raw
Material Act goal of a minimum 10% of European endogenous lithium production
from 2030.

 

Savannah is focused on the responsible development and operation of the
Barroso Lithium Project so that its impact on the environment is minimised and
the socio-economic benefits that it can bring to all its stakeholders are
maximised.

 

The Company is listed and regulated on the AIM Market of the London Stock
Exchange and trades under the ticker "SAV".

 

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