[SMM News] Savannah raised over $40 million to develop the Portuguese lithium project

Solis Minerals has started diamond drilling at its Campo Grande Lithium Project in Brazil's Araçuaí-Salinas Lithium Valley. The company plans five holes totalling about 1,000 m, with planned depths of up to 200 m, to test lithium pegmatites across a 500 m corridor. The targets rest on coincident multi-element geochemical anomalies at surface and on historical auger drilling results. Historical work by Rio Tinto and later mapping and geochemical work by Solis defined the targets. Solis has also mapped a new pegmatite swarm of three coherent outcrop zones between planned holes DHCG-001 and DHCG-004. The program will test the continuity, geometry and lithium potential of the pegmatites beneath surface, starting where mapped pegmatites coincide with geochemical anomalies. Solis says Campo Grande's geology and geochemistry are comparable to PLS Group's Colina Lithium Project, about 100 km to the southwest. Separately, Solis has completed seven drill holes at its Mandacaru Lithium Project in Brazil, with assay results pending.

Charger Metals has mobilized a second drill rig to its Lake Johnston Lithium Project in Western Australia as part of a 10,000 m program targeting resource growth. Diamond and reverse circulation rigs are now operating at the Medcalf lithium deposit, and RC drilling began just over a week ago. The program will double the meters drilled at Medcalf. The drilling targets extensions and infill at the Medcalf inferred mineral resource estimate of 10.6 Mt grading 1% Li₂O. Drilling has further defined the Medcalf West Exploration Target of 3-5 Mt at 1-1.4% Li₂O. The program also aims to provide diamond core for metallurgical and geotechnical test work. Following the recent Medcalf resource upgrade, which raised contained Li₂O by 34%, Charger's board has committed to a Scoping Study on the Lake Johnston Project. The current resource sits on a predominantly 40 m x 80 m drilling grid, including 10,936 m of drilling at a cost of $32 per tone of contained Li₂O. The program is fully funded from Charger's sale of the Bynoe Lithium Project to Core Lithium for $3.75 million cash, received on 17 July 2026. Lake Johnston lies 450 km east of Perth in the Yilgarn Province, about 70 km from the Earl Grey Lithium Project, where Covalent Lithium began mining and commissioning in March 2024.

US battery recycling startup Nth Cycle has signed a 10-year, $1 billion offtake agreement with Glencore to supply lithium carbonate recovered from recycled batteries, ahead of a planned public listing. Under the deal, Glencore will supply Nth Cycle roughly 24,000 metric tons a year of black mass as feedstock; deal value reflects Q2 2026 metals pricing. Nth Cycle will process the material at a commercial facility in the US Southeast, with location to be announced later this year and operations starting by 2029, after the company doubled its planned facility size following a $100 million US Department of Energy grant received in August. Nth Cycle also holds a similar offtake deal with commodities trader Trafigura, announced in March. Nth Cycle plans to go public via a merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition, a SPAC deal valuing the company at $585 million, after canceling a planned Series C round earlier this year. The deal expands US domestic lithium recovery capacity from battery recycling, adding a non-mined lithium supply source as EV and clean energy demand drives competition for lithium feedstock.