VUL megathread, page-4942

Soon direct and close competition for Vulcan?

France's first lithium refining plant to be built in Alsace in 2025Strasbourg-based start-up Viridian announced on Tuesday 7 June its intention to build France's first lithium refining plant for the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries. Located in Lauterbourg (Bas-Rhin), the site will initially be sourced from Latin America but hopes to be able to process local lithium in the future.Eramet is involved in several lithium extraction projects, in Argentina but also in geothermal waters in Alsace.Millions of electric cars should soon have batteries containing lithium refined in France. The start-up Viridian Lithium, founded at the end of 2021 in Strasbourg, unveiled on Tuesday 7 June an unprecedented project: the construction of a factory to convert this metal, which is essential for the production of electrolyte and cathodes, into battery-quality lithium salts. Due to open in Lauterbourg (Bas-Rhin) in 2025, the site should be able to supply 25,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year in the first phase, which would allow the company to equip around 500,000 vehicles. Its CEO Rémy Welschinger envisages reaching 100,000 tonnes per year by 2030, enough to produce the batteries for two million electric vehicles, in order to "cover the entire French demand". And even beyond that...

https://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/la-premiere-usine-francaise-de-raffinage-de-lithium-devrait-voir-le-jour-en-alsace-en-2025.N2013482