Aim-quoted Savannah Resources has added a number of leading Portuguese and international consultancy groups to its team advancing work on the Mina do Barroso project.

The new consultancies appointed would assist Primero Group and Savannah’s in-house team in their work on the feasibility study, which the company reported on Monday was progressing well.

Additional groups had also been appointed to advise on funding, community engagement and communications for the project.  

In addition to Primero, which was appointed in July as the primary engineering group and lead manager for the feasibility study, the team also comprises Knight Piésold, which will lead geotechnical and hydrological engineering, Quadrant to consult on the transport and logistics requirements, Nagrom, which continues to provide assay and metallurgical test work services, ALS, which provides assay and metallurgical test work services and VISA Consultores which is working on the  environmental impact statement assessment.

The company further appointed communications firm CV&A Consultores and it recruited S317 Consulting to design a stakeholder management strategy, develop a community engagement plan and source European Union funding.

Its financial adviser is Noah's Rule.

"Savannah has assembled a group of consultants which offer an excellent combination of technical capability with highly relevant sector and country experience.  Under the leadership of Primero and our in-house team work on the feasibility study is progressing well and we look forward to announcing key programme milestones on the way to completion of the study next year as we look to become Europe's most significant producer of spodumene lithium concentrates,” commented Savannah CEO David Archer.

The scoping study for the project outlined a 1.3-million-tonne-a-year mining and concentrator operation, producing 175 000 t/y of 6% spodumene concentrate and generated a pre-tax net present value of $356-million, an internal rate of return of 63% and payback of 1.7 years.