Additional community agreements and land access
Summary by AI BETAClose X
12 August 2026
Savannah Resources Plc
(AIM: SAV) ('Savannah', or the 'Company')
Savannah strengthens its cooperation with "baldio" communal land communities in Barroso
and secures further access to land required for the Barroso Lithium Project
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, is very pleased to announce the signing of three benefit sharing agreements (the 'agreements') with local communities that hold and manage communal lands ('baldios'): one with the Baldio of the villages of Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga, another with the Baldio of the Couto de Dornelas, and a third with the regional Secretariat of the Baldios of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro.
Highlights:
· The agreements include:
o A land access and benefit sharing agreement with the Baldio of the villages of Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga (parish of Canedo, municipality of Ribeira de Pena), including Blocks A and C of the C-190 ('Aldeia') Mining Concession. Block A hosts the JORC-compliant 3.5Mt Aldeia Resource and 1.6Mt Reserve.
o An addendum to the agreement in place since 2020 with the Baldio of Couto de Dornelas (Boticas municipality) which manages land on, and adjacent to, the western end of the C-100 Mining Concession.
o A Memorandum of Understanding with the Secretariat of the Baldios of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro ('SBTMAD') which establishes a technical and strategic partnership for the integrated planning, management and enhancement of an agroforestry area of approximately 100 hectares owned by Savannah.
· Savannah now has land access agreements with two out of the three baldios which manage land on the Project's Mining Concessions.
· The agreements share three common principles:
o Community participation in the Project's oversight bodies, including seats on the proposed Local Consultative and Monitoring Committee for the Project.
o Local reinvestment of the benefits generated.
o Fair rent-based compensation indexed to inflation.
· These agreements are complemented by Savannah's ongoing scheme of land acquisition from private owners and preparations for the compulsory purchase of land it is unable to buy or access through commercial agreements in a timely manner to maintain the Project's development schedule.
Emanuel Proença, CEO of Savannah, said: "These agreements say a great deal about how we want to develop this Project. This is not simply about securing access to land - it is about recognising that the baldios belong to the communities that have managed them for generations, and that those communities have a voice in decisions and access a fair share of the benefits. That is what we are doing by giving them a seat on the Project's Local Consultative and Monitoring Committee and within the Foundation's governing bodies, ensuring that it is they who decide how the funds received from the Project are applied."
Diogo Maia, Savannah's Community Engagement Manager, added, "The partnership with SBTMAD adds a further dimension that we consider essential: active forest management and fire prevention, which are today among the greatest threats to this territory. We welcome SBTMAD's commitment to finding lasting solutions for Barroso."
"It is very pleasing to have struck these mutually beneficial agreements with these important community groups. At both the local and regional level, it again demonstrates the support the Project is receiving from those keen to embrace the opportunities it will create. With the involvement of all those represented by these local institutions, the region will become better equipped and prepared to serve its people, which includes the families of our staff, and to continue to bring back some of the population lost over the last four decades."
Further information
Figure 1: The areas managed by the Baldio of the villages of Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga and by the Baldio of Couto de Dornelas in relation to the Project's Mining Concessions.
Baldios
A 'baldio' is a communal area of land possessed and managed by the local community.
The baldios community groups are one of the most distinctive community institutions in northern Portugal, representing land held and managed collectively by those community members ('compartes'), who hold rights over it. Savannah's engagement and collaboration with these communities is central in the Company's overall approach to the responsible development of the Barroso Lithium Project.
There are three* baldios community groups which manage land on the Project's Mining Concessions including the Baldio of Covas do Barroso village which manages land on the C-100 Concession area. The leaders of this baldio are the same individuals that coordinate the small, local anti-project protest group and have refused to engage in dialogue with the Company thus far. To date, Savannah has been unable to reach an agreement with this baldio's community, despite making an offer (See 6 September 2023 RNS for details), which has the potential to generate significant benefits for the local community and its members.
*The Project's northern access road which will connect the Project to the national road network also routes through land managed by the Baldios of Vilar and Carvalho.
Complementary land strategies
It is always Savannah's preference to strike amicable agreements with landowners and managers. In addition to the agreements announced today, Savannah has purchased 111 land plots from private owners to date with an additional 16 held under promissory contracts. Savannah has also acquired stakes in a number of additional plots which have multiple owners.
Furthermore, the Mining Concessions granted over the Project's area safeguard Savannah's access to land that may be necessary for the development of the Project. Hence, the Company has available the mechanisms provided in Portuguese law, such as compulsory purchase, for situations where it is not possible to reach an agreement in a timeframe which fits with the Project's development schedule. Preparations for the compulsory purchase of relevant land have been ongoing since H1 2025 and GBP2.4m of cash reserves is ring fenced for these future purchases.
Community Participation in decisions and in benefits
The agreements signed with the Baldios of the villages of Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga and with the Baldios of Couto de Dornelas provide for the integration of representatives of these communities into the future Local Consultative and Monitoring Committee ('CLCM') of the Barroso Lithium Project, the body that will be responsible for two core functions:
· The review, prioritisation and approval of local development projects funded by the Barroso Lithium Foundation
· The social monitoring of the Project, through scrutiny of the Company's performance and verification of the commitments undertaken.
In the case of SBTMAD, participation takes place directly within the governing bodies of the Barroso Lithium Foundation.
The Barroso Lithium Foundation, already established, will have a minimum annual budget of €500,000 from the first year of production. The allocation of these funds will be decided collaboratively by the various local and regional Project stakeholders, through the CLCM, ensuring that it is the communities themselves that set investment priorities for their area.
Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga: access to land with safeguards for community uses
The agreement signed with the Baldios of the villages of Alijó, Canedo and Penalonga - whose compartes have been, since time immemorial, the legitimate communal holders of this land, represented by the Canedo Parish Council as the managing entity - was approved by the Assembly of Compartes. The agreement covers 150 hectares in the Serra do Pinheiro, for exploration work and potential future extraction within the C-190 Mining Concession. The agreement has an initial term of ten years with the option to extend annually for another five, and it provides for an annual rent automatically adjusted in line with the consumer price index.
The agreement expressly safeguards the rights of the compartes: livestock grazing, scrub cutting and herbaceous cultivation are maintained; any timber resulting from vegetation clearance reverts in full to the compartes; all drilling platforms and pits will be rehabilitated; and landscape restoration will use native species, or those requested by the compartes, with community involvement in the preparation of the Environmental and Landscape Recovery Plan.
Savannah has further recognised the social, economic and cultural relevance of the plan to build the Canedo Sports Hall - a community facility intended to serve the residents and compartes of the three villages - and has offered to provide technical support to its development and to support its application to the Barroso Lithium Foundation.
Dornelas: six years of partnership, now reinforced
With the local community of the Baldios of Couto de Dornelas, Savannah has maintained a continuous contractual relationship since 2020, covering the use of the baldio access roads and tracks required for exploration work. The addendum now signed gives that partnership a new dimension: the Baldios of Couto de Dornelas, located within the Project's area of influence, will join the CLCM with a representative of their own, participating directly in the review and approval of local development projects funded by the Barroso Lithium Foundation and in the monitoring of the Project's social performance.
SBTMAD: forest management and fire prevention
The Memorandum of Understanding with SBTMAD establishes a technical and strategic partnership for the integrated planning, management and enhancement of an agroforestry area of approximately 100 hectares within the Project's area of influence and owned by Savannah.
Established in 1989 and headquartered in Vila Real, SBTMAD is the regional body representing the communities of compartes of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, bringing together hundreds of member entities across more than twenty municipalities in the north of the country. Its origins date back to the first Baldios Conference, held in 1979, which brought together some 1,200 compartes representing more than 320 communities.
Under the protocol, SBTMAD will prepare and implement a Forest Management Plan for the area covered, provide permanent technical supervision on the ground and identify projects to enhance the economic value of the territory, including agricultural and energy initiatives and voluntary carbon market schemes. Savannah will fund a dedicated forestry technical team and a four-wheel-drive vehicle equipped with a first-response wildfire kit, shared by both teams across the municipalities of Boticas and Ribeira de Pena.
SBTMAD will also join the governing bodies of the Barroso Lithium Foundation, through a representative of its Board. The agreement further establishes that the net economic benefits generated by the partnership will revert to the local community, through the Barroso Lithium Foundation, or be reinvested in the intervention area itself, in forest management operations, reforestation, assisted natural regeneration and fire prevention. In recruiting staff, SBTMAD will give preference to technical personnel resident in the region.
Regulatory Information
This Announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK version of the market abuse regulation (EU No. 596/2014) as it forms part of United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("UK MAR").
Savannah - Enabling Europe's energy transition.
**ENDS**
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For further information please visit www.savannahresources.com or contact:
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Savannah Resources PLC Emanuel Proença, CEO Asa Bridle, Investor Relations António Neves Costa, Media Relations
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Tel: +351 963 850 959 Tel: +44 207 117 2489 Tel: +351 962 678 912 |
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SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Advisor & Joint Broker) David Hignell / Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance) Grant Barker /Abigail Wayne (Sales & Broking)
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Tel: +44 20 3470 0470
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Canaccord Genuity Limited (Joint Broker) James Asensio / Rory Blundell / Charlie Hammond (Corporate Broking) Ben Knott (Sales)
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Tel: +44 20 7523 8000
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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 and 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.183,000tpa 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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