Lithium could redefine global power relations and France is jumping on the bandwagon. The industrial minerals group Imerys announced on Monday, October 24 the start of mining by 2027 of a lithium deposit in the Allier in France (center). Of the ten European lithium exploitation projects, this 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, based on lithium. exploitation of brine from the Rhine valley. According to the government, the initiative will serve to accelerate the energy transition by fueling the electric car industry, although some environmentalists are against the plan.
The planned investment amounts to one billion euros to exploit for at least 25 years a deposit whose “concentrations and quantities” have been deemed “very attractive” after 18 months of underground drilling and studies, has indicated Imerys in a press release.
Since the 1960s, the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) had clearly identified the presence of lithium in this subsoil. But Imerys was unaware until recently of the content and therefore whether the site could be profitable. “We estimate the deposit at around one million tonnes of lithium oxide,” said Alessandro Dazza, CEO of Imerys. Or “much more than the BRGM initially thought” (320,000 tonnes).
Enough to produce “34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year from 2028 for a period of at least 25 years”. Which is far from negligible: 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.
The “Emili” project will help Europe get rid of its almost complete dependence on China, which refines 50 to 70% of lithium and cobalt. Lithium is needed for the batteries of electric cars, which are supposed to be the only new vehicles that can be sold in the European Union from 2035. Over a period of at least 25 years, the lithium produced will make it possible to equip “the equivalent of 700,000 electric vehicles in lithium-ion batteries” per year, according to Imerys. Concretely, lithium is used in the manufacture of cathodes, the negative pole of electric batteries.
The deposit “should provide a sustainable and competitive domestic source of supply for French and European car manufacturers and would greatly contribute to meeting the challenges of the energy transition” declared Alessandro Dazza, CEO of Imerys. Lithium is one of the essential components of batteries intended to replace fossil fuels for cars. It was identified as “critical” by the European Commission in 2020.
For now, four countries control 95% of the world’s lithium production (China, Chile, Australia, Argentina). The competition for control of future extraction sites for this critical mineral is becoming a major geopolitical issue. With the energy transition boom, however, the supply of mineral raw materials has rarely been so crucial. Problem: depending on the metals, Europe depends from 75 to 100% on imports, and France relies completely on foreign countries”, recalled L’Express last May.
To view the graph, click here.
Already in February 2022, the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, had affirmed in Les Échos that she “needed materials like lithium” in order to “enter a society in which we will emit less greenhouse gases”. Metals such as lithium allow industry, electronics, transport or energy systems to do without hydrocarbons and no longer emit the greenhouse gases that warm the planet.
Metals will be “at the center of efforts to decarbonize and electrify the economy as we move away from fossil fuels,” also specifies a McKinsey report published in early 2022. of this deposit, “we are going to help Europe to decarbonize”, declared Monday to the press Alessandro Dazza, 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. He adds that he will be supported by the French government.
There remain the probable environmental criticisms against this new mining project in the heart of France which could increase the pressure on the already strong water resource. The concentration is of the order of 0.9 to 1%, that is to say that it is necessary to extract nearly 100 tons of rock to extract one ton 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”. In Brittany, BRGM had discovered in 2018 a deposit of 66,000 tonnes of lithium in Tréguennec ( On the spot, the local elected officials are against any extraction project on the Natura 2000 classified site.
For its part, Imerys announced that the mine would adopt an international standard currently being developed, “IRMA”, which aims to reduce toxic discharges and minimize water consumption. Mining will take place underground, which will minimize dust, and 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 8kg of C02 per ton of lithium, against 16 to 20kg in Australia and China, according to him.
