The Emili project, announced on Monday morning by the French industrial minerals group Imerys, will help Europe shed its almost complete dependence on China for the lithium needed for the batteries of electric cars, supposed to be the only vehicles new to be sold in the European Union from 2035.
With the exploitation of this deposit, “we will help Europe to decarbonize”, declared Monday to the press Alessandro Dazza, director general of Imerys, who was to receive local elected officials on the spot.
“This project, exemplary in environmental and climatic terms, will drastically reduce our lithium import needs”, welcomed the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, in the group’s press release. A project that will be supported by the French government, adds the minister.
– “One million tons” –
Of the ten European lithium mining projects, that of Imerys is the second largest, since the abandonment of the Rio Tinto project in Serbia in January, and behind that of the start-up Vulcan in Germany.
The “concentrations and quantities” of lithium were deemed “very attractive” in Beauvoir (commune of Echassières, in the Allier), which has hosted a quarry since 1850 producing 30,000 tonnes of kaolin each year for porcelain or tiles.
“We estimate the deposit at around one million tonnes of lithium oxide,” Dazza said.
Enough to produce “34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year from 2028 for a period of at least 25 years”, and “equip the equivalent of 700,000 electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries” per year, according to Imerys.
This is far from negligible, because the current global production of lithium carbonate or hydroxide, the two elements used in batteries, does not exceed 450,000 tonnes worldwide, according to Imerys. And by 2040, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that it will be multiplied by 40.
At Beauvoir, the concentration is around 0.9 to 1%, that is to say that it is necessary to extract nearly 100 tonnes of rock to extract one tonne of lithium.
The group estimates its production costs “between 7 and 9 euros per kilo” excluding initial investment, which would guarantee “an interesting return on investment”.
And it promises in the long term 1,000 direct and indirect jobs in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, on two sites: the underground mica extraction mine containing lithium, at a depth of 75 to 350 meters, and a mineral purification plant and transformation into lithium hydroxide, less than 100 kilometers from the mine.
– Environmental impact –
There remain the probable environmental criticisms against this new mining project in the heart of France.
Imerys announced that the mine would adopt an international standard being developed, IRMA, which aims to reduce toxic discharges and minimize water consumption.
Mining will take place underground, which will minimize dust. The rocks will be transported by pipeline and rail to avoid trucks between the mine and the industrial site. As for the emissions generated by the operation, the group estimates them at 8 kilos of C02 per ton of lithium, against 16 to 20 kilos in Australia and China, according to him.
“We have to stop with the myth of the clean mine! All that is communication and flan. We don’t know how to extract material from the subsoil in a clean way, because a mine always involves a big chemical processing plant, which leads to exploitation, and ultimately pollution, of water and large quantities of waste that we do not know how to manage”, protested Antoine Gatet, vice-president of France nature environment (FNE).
“Are we really ready to sacrifice part of the water and the ecosystem of the Massif Central all that to make electric cars at 40,000 euros that very few people can afford?” he wondered, denouncing the absence of public consultations prior to the implementation of this project.
