José de Mello scraps €492 million lithium refinery in Estarreja

The José de Mello Group has abandoned the Lifthium project, a €492 million lithium refinery planned for Estarreja, saying it could not secure enough long-term customers to make it viable. The plant had been designated a Strategic Project under the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act and qualified for €180 million in public support, never used. Its collapse follows Galp's earlier withdrawal from the Aurora conversion plant in Setúbal, leaving Portugal's promised lithium processing and battery industry largely dismantled. Campaigners say the case undermines arguments used to justify mining projects such as Barroso, where the European Ombudsman separately found the Commission wrongly withheld environmental evidence.