Will Europe open lithium mines for the energy transition?

Europe is so interested in the lithium, cobalt and nickel –essential metals in the manufacture of electric batteries that are going to replace hydrocarbons causing the global warming-– which prepares the opening of mines and refineries to try to reduce its dependence on imports.

The continent has many mines under development or planned, but today “there isn’t really any lithium production” at a quality level suitable for batteries, said Robert Colbourn, an analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence in London, which specializes in transition metals. energetic.

“Europe is not on the lithium map,” either “at the mining level or at the processing level,” he added.

The world’s largest producer is Australia, with more than 50%, and China refines 60% of the “white gold” of the energy transition, transforming it into lithium carbonate or hydroxide.

A French report sent this past week to the government calculates that Europe will not exceed 30% self-sufficiency in these metals by 2030, including nickel and cobalt, which allow electricity to be stored and transported.

At least 38 battery plant projects have been announced in Europe, but the question of their metal supply is far from resolved.

The issue will be on the table of the European Ministers of Industry at a meeting in Lens (northern France) on January 31 and February 1, during the “competitiveness, industry and internal market” council.

“Strong measures are needed. The idea for the 27 is not to go from a dependency on oil to a dependency on metals. We depend too much on foreign powers, especially China, “said a source from the French Ministry of Economy.

Europe can count on deposits in Serbia, Portugal, Germany, the Czech Republic and France.

But any exploitation of mines or extraction quarries must be done minimizing environmental impacts and with transparency, NGOs and scientists warn.

“Do not ban anything”

In December, the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, which has financed exploration studies at Jadar in Serbia since 2004, faced protests demanding the publication of its environmental impact reports.

In France, the Minister of the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, recently said that the country should not “prohibit anything” in terms of extraction, as long as it has an environmental permit.

According to specialists, this is an urgent issue. Lithium was recently included in the list of critical metals of the European Union (EU), and for the International Energy Agency (IEA) the world demand must be multiplied by 40 between now and 2040.

“By 2030, Europe will probably need more than 500,000 tons per year, more than current world production” of about 475,000 tons in 2021, Robert Colbourn noted.

In Argentina, in the ABC triangle of lithium (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile), the world’s second largest source of this precious metal, the French mining group Eramet announced the opening in 2024 of a plant with the Chinese Tsingshan. It should produce “15% of Europe’s lithium needs,” according to its president, Christel Bories.

In Germany, an Australian mining group promotes its “carbon neutral” lithium, marketed under the Vulcan brand, for which it has signed alliances with Renault and Stellantis.

Also in Germany, the Canadian group Rock Tech Lithium will build a refining plant in 2024.

In Portugal, where a refinery project between the Portuguese Galp Energie and the Swedish battery company Northvolt has just been announced, the authorities await the verdict of the environmental authority on another mining project named Savannah.

And Chile, the world’s leading producer until 2016, announced on Thursday the allocation of 80,000-ton exploration and production concessions to a Chilean and a Chinese company in the hope of “regaining its position on the world stage.”