Lithium minnow Novo Litio failed to impress investors yesterday despite becoming the largest landholder in the northern Portugal lithium belt.

The stock — which also issued positive scoping study results for its flagship Sepeda project — slipped 2 per cent to 4.9c with close to 500,000 shares changing hands.

Perth-based Novo Litio (ASX: NLI) snapped up another 354 sq km around Sepeda from Toronto-listed Medgold Resources.

“We are now the largest granted tenement landholders in the northern Portugal lithium belt, which provides us with tremendous upside for the lithium resource discovery at Speeda,” said Novo Litio chief David Frances.

Historical records provided by Portugese Mining & Energy Ministry and Novo Litio fieldwork showed multiple pegmatatite occurrences.

Meantime, a study into Sepeda recommended underground mining.

The study found that producing a concentrated product was highly favourable given the current resource size, with a larger resource required to justify the capital required for a carbonate plant.

The company hopes it will go some way to achieving this target when it releases a mineral resource update for Sepeda b efore the end of the year.