Government has an obligation to look for alternatives, minister says
Portugal’s minister of economy said on Tuesday that the government is in contact with other developers after Galp’s withdrawal from the lithium refinery in Setúbal.
“The Portuguese government has an obligation to look for alternatives to projects or developers that have given up, shown no interest or are waiting,” said Pedro Reis, when asked at the presentation of the Action Plan for the European Regulation on Critical Raw Materials, about Galp’s decision not to go ahead with the Aurora project.
Considering the contacts made, the government official believes that “interest in lithium and refining continues and the business plans already discount accelerations and decelerations concerning the market gain of electric vehicles”.
Investors “are signalling that the potential of lithium and refineries is not limited to the automotive sector; it can be used for smart storage,” he said, reiterating that he does not doubt that there is interest.
Although he acknowledged signs that the government considered positive, he pointed out that they “require reservations”, and it is now necessary to see if they will be able to “bring the talks to a successful conclusion”.
Galp informed the Portuguese Securities Market Commission last week of its decision to abandon the Aurora project for a lithium refinery in Setúbal after Northvolt withdrew and failed to find another partner.
Source: LUSA
