Marina Brito stressed that Portugal “is one of the only” countries able to “cover the entire cycle of batteries, from mining (lithium) to recycling” of equipment, pointing out that “there is a whole circular economy” based on batteries.

"Portugal has the potential to go through the whole cycle because it is the only country that has lithium mines," she said.

Brito, "if we look at the countries like Saudi Arabia and this area, we see that oil is not a bad thing.”

“It must be very well thought out how this mineral will be managed because lithium is the future," she stressed.

According to what she said, "there are batteries in almost everything that is done nowadays, from cars to phones, laptops and tablets, everything has a battery. The problem is that these batteries are not eternal and the power ends."

Brito explained that the batteries "can be recycled but is limited to how they are because there are several types of batteries.”

The event is to count on the participation of secretary of state João Galamba, minister Manuel Heitor and the new president of the Foundation for Science and Technology, Helena Pereira.