Savannah Resources adds new IR lead as it seeks lithium dominance in Europe

Savannah Resources, a diversified mining company with a lithium project in Portugal and a heavy mineral sands project in Mozambique, has named Valérie Mella as senior investor relations and media executive as it pursues its ambition to become the ‘most significant’ producer of spodumene lithium concentrate in Europe.

Welcoming Mella to the company, CEO David Archer comments on her ‘extensive IR experience’.

‘[Her career] has spanned multiple industries and we are confident that her leadership and business insight will hugely benefit Savannah going forwards,’ he says in a statement. The firm also appointed Sascha Keen as a strategic financing executive. ‘I am confident they will both build on the strategic progress the Savannah team has achieved so far,’ says Archer.

Mella, who holds a master’s degree from Sciences Po Paris, brings more than 15 years’ IR experience to the role. The company says she has ‘built best-in-class practices for US, French and Italian listed blue-chip companies and a UK-based asset manager’, adding that Mella has an ‘extensive understanding of the financial markets, with a specialization in the natural resources sector.’

The company’s Mina do Barroso project in Portugal is a hard-rock lithium project with the largest spodumene lithium resource in Europe. Its Mutamba heavy mineral sands project in Mozambique is being developed in a consortium with the global major, Rio Tinto. The two new hires are part of the company’s drive to take the Mina do Barroso project into the development stage as Savannah focuses on growth and its goal of becoming Europe’s major supplier of spodumene lithium concentrate from its Portuguese mine.

Earlier this month Savannah joined the newly formed International Lithium Association (ILiA), an industry trade organization. Talking about the company’s membership of the new body, Archer said in a statement at the time that ‘given lithium’s key role in the global energy transition, it is very likely the attention the lithium industry is already receiving from governments, the media and civil society is going to increase significantly.

‘Having a trade association with the voice of the industry will be key to providing accurate market information as well as a unifying and consistent message to external stakeholders on how the industry is meeting the demands and challenges placed upon it,’ Archer said. ‘ILiA will also have an important role in bringing together the diverse membership of this industry to help build bridges within the lithium supply chain and promote best practice in areas such as ESG.’