Residents of Covas do Barroso, in Boticas, this Monday accused the company Savannah Resources from Minas Gerais of trying to “forcefully enter” land that they claim is empty and that is already being contested in court.
“The company is trying to forcefully enter a territory for which it does not have permission, and we were forced to come here to protect our land,” said the president of the local community of Baldios de Covas do Barroso, Aida Fernandez, who spoke to reporters in the pine forest where Savannah is supposedly trying to do some geological exploration.
Since Thursday, people in the area have been on constant alert to prevent machinery from moving onto land they say does not belong to Savannah, the Barroso lithium mine concessionaire that received a favorable conditional environmental impact statement (DIA) in May ). .
“The area in question is disputed and the complaint has been registered in court, therefore, as far as we understand, until a decision is made, they have no right to enter the disputed area,” the person in charge emphasized, pointing out, that whenever there is an attempt before the car moves forward, GNR is called in, as happened this morning, to deal with the incident.
Lusa tried to get clarification from the company, but so far it has not been possible.
Aida Fernandez said that work on the land, carried out by subcontracting companies, is aimed at cutting down pine forests to search for lithium.
“We have to be here every day because they have an order, if we are not here, to move forward, and therefore we have to be here, protecting what belongs to us,” he stressed.
Among the cases filed against Savannah, one of them involves land.
The lawsuit was filed by the Comunidade de Baldios de Covas do Barroso against the company and individuals and seeks restitution of land allegedly “usurped” by the company.
He also recently called on the MP to “investigate the usurpation of vacant and private land through abuse of BUPI (a new digital platform that allows land mapping) and fraudulent registrations that benefit the mining company and the project in question.”
“The company has every right to work on its own land; we do not have permission to work on vacant lots and private territories,” emphasized Aida Fernandez.
Carlos Gomes Gonçalves explained that people are organized in shifts to monitor the progress of the machine. “It affects our lives, it’s not just the time we spend here, it’s the anxiety we bring day and night. It’s boring and slows down our lives because our life is working in the fields and we have to leave work behind to come.” here,” said this farmer.
Maria Loureiro takes breaks from her farming work to supervise the mining company.
“We have to come because they want to enter our land without permission at any cost. So when they started cutting down the trees they were told they couldn’t do it, but they said [os trabalhadores] what orders they had and continued to carry out. We had to impose ourselves and come here every day as soon as a person with a car passes by,” he emphasized.
The Barroso mine is part of Operation Influencer, which led to the resignation of the prime minister. The process targets the lithium exploration concessions of Boticas and Montalegre, both in Vila Real; a project for the production of energy from hydrogen in Sines, Setubal, as well as a project for the construction of a “data center” in the industrial and logistics zone of Sines by Start Campus.
Regarding the investigation, Aida Fernandez said that it proves opposition to mining exploration.
“It takes away our peace, it takes away our peace, our sleep, it’s not health. We are being harmed,” stressed Maria Loureiro, who noted that her life is agriculture, but in Covas, if you “fight against everything and everyone.”
The Barroso mine was the first lithium project in Portugal to receive a favorable DIA (Environmental Impact Statement) opinion, albeit subject to compensatory and mitigation measures.