REG - Savannah Resources - Second phase of DFS drilling underway

Savannah ResourcesAnnouncement

09/01/2025 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250109:nRSI6627Sa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 6627S  Savannah Resources PLC  09 January 2025

 

 

 

9 January 2025

Savannah Resources Plc

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

 

Second phase of DFS drilling underway at the Barroso Lithium Project

 

Savannah Resources Plc, the developer of the Barroso Lithium Project (the
'Project') in Portugal, Europe's largest spodumene lithium deposit, is pleased
to announce that it has recommenced drilling as it moves towards the
finalisation of the Project's Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS").

 

This second phase of the DFS drill programme will include a total of 117
drillholes for approximately 13,000m split into c.9,000m of reverse
circulation drilling and c.4,000m of diamond drilling, and will cover
resource, metallurgical and geotechnical drilling at the Grandão,
Reservatório and Pinheiro deposits.

 

Highlights:

·    Contractors: Three drilling contractors, all of which have worked on
previous drilling campaigns at the Project, have been engaged to provide 2
reverse circulation and 2 diamond drill rigs to ensure rapid completion of the
work programme.

·    Drill pad preparation: Preparations for the drilling campaign began
before Christmas and as of 7 January, vegetation had been cleared for 64 drill
pads, with 27 pads constructed.

·    Resource drilling: will target conversion of all existing JORC
Inferred Resources at the 3 deposits into at least the Indicated category to
allow for inclusion into the DFS and potential conversion to JORC Reserves.

·    Metallurgical drilling: will focus on the high-grade lithium
mineralisation at Pinheiro, which was identified in the first phase of DFS
drilling last year, and the second Pinheiro pegmatite lens.

·    Geotechnical drilling: will be focused on the planned pit wall
locations to complete final designs.

·    Assay results: will be released when received, which is expected to
be from late Q1 2025 onwards.

·    Resource Updates: for the Grandão, Reservatório and Pinheiro
deposits will be completed once results from the drilling are available.

 

Savannah's CEO, Emanuel Proença, said, "Following the award of the temporary
land access order in December, our technical team began immediate preparation
of the ground for the subsequent second phase of DFS-related drilling. With
numerous drill pads now constructed, we are delighted to announce that
drilling is back underway at the Project.

 

"This is a substantial programme, which will provide much of the outstanding
data we need to upgrade the Project's existing 28Mt JORC resources, as well as
finalise pit designs and other technical aspects of the Project. Furthermore,
it will generate significant news flow over the coming months, which we look
forward to sharing with the market."

 

Figure 1: Drill pad preparation underway at the Pinheiro deposit

 

Figure 2: The first RC drill rig arriving in Boticas for the phase 2 drilling
programme

 

 

Further Information

 

Final Phase of DFS Drilling

The drill programme will include a total of 117 drillholes for 12,961m split
into 8,980m of reverse circulation drilling ('RC') and 3,981m of diamond
drilling ('DD') and include resource ('RSD'), metallurgical ('MET') and
geotechnical ('GEO') drilling at the Grandão ('GRA'), Reservatório ('RES')
and Pinheiro ('PNR') deposits (Table 1 and Figure 3).

 

Table 1: DFS Final Phase drilling Programme Summary

 Type                PNR    RES    GRA    TOTALS
 Drillholes          37     53     27     117
 RC (m)              2,665  4,455  1,860  8,980
 DD (m)              1,355  1,271  1,355  3,981
 Total Drilling (m)  4,020  5,726  3,215  12,961

 

Figure 3: Summary map of DFS phase 2 drilling programme

 

 

The Resource drilling (Table 2) was planned internally by Savannah's technical
team, with supervision from the independent resource signatory. A total of 102
drillholes for 11,311m are planned to upgrade the Inferred Resources into the
Indicated and Measured categories which is required for their inclusion into
the DFS and conversion into JORC Reserves.

 

Table 2: Resource Drilling Summary

 Type                    PNR    RES    GRA    TOTALS
 RSD Drillholes          29     51     22     102
 RC (m)                  2,665  4,455  1,860  8,980
 DD (m)                  575    1,051  705    2,331
 Total RSD Drilling (m)  3,240  5,506  2,565  11,311

 

The Metallurgical drilling (Table 3) objective was adjusted following the
conclusion of the last drilling programme where a new high-grade zone of
lithium mineralisation was identified at Pinheiro. The additional works are
targeted at testing the metallurgical performance of this zone and the second
lens of the Pinheiro deposit, which to date has only received limited work. A
total of 3 drillholes, adding up to 250m are planned to allow enough sample
for the additional detailed metallurgical testing to be completed for the DFS.

 

Table 3: Metallurgy Drilling Summary

 Type                    PNR  RES  GRA  TOTALS
 MET drillholes          3    0    0    3
 Total MET drilling (m)  250  0    0    250

 

The Geotechnical drilling (Table 4), which is targeting the proposed walls of
the open pits now consists of 12 drillholes, adding up to 1,400m. This should
generate enough samples for the geotechnical testing required for the final
design of the pits.

 

Table 4: Geotechnical Drilling Summary

 Type                    PNR  RES  GRA  TOTALS
 GEO drillholes          5    2    5    12
 Total GEO drilling (m)  530  220  650  1,400

 

 

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.

 

 

Savannah - Enabling Europe's energy transition.

 

**ENDS**

 

Follow @SavannahRes on X (Formerly known as Twitter)

 

Follow Savannah Resources on LinkedIn

 

For further information please visit www.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)

 Camarco (Financial PR)                                            Tel: +44 20 3757 4980

 Gordon Poole/ Emily Hall / Nuthara Bandara

 LPM (Portugal Media Relations)                                    Tel: +351 218 508 110

 Herminio Santos/ Jorge Coelho/ Margarida Pinheiro

 

 

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
largest battery grade spodumene lithium resource outlined to date in Europe.

 

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 being supported in its development goals by its
strategic partner and largest shareholder AMG Critical Materials N.V., the
global critical materials business.

 

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 London Stock Exchange's Alternative
Investment Market (AIM) and trades under the ticker "SAV".

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  DRLLVLLBEFLLBBQ