Europe aims to develop a European Battery Alliance, more virtuous and less dependent on China , for its electric vehicles. " It is very good, it would be even better if the metals of these batteries came from France or Europe ", noted on 22 January the rapporteur of an opinion of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) on the dependence of France with strategic metals, Philippe Saint-Aubin. Chick! It will be difficult, with our low cobalt indexes, to compete with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which extracts 60% of world volumes. For nickel, Erametin product, but in New Caledonia and not in the form adapted to the batteries. On the other hand, it is not excluded to supply European lithium with the 10 to 20 mega-factories which the Union aims to attract by 2025, the precursors being CATL in Germany , Northvolt in Sweden and LG Chem in Poland.
Europe imports 86% of its lithium needs, the basic ingredient of lithium-ion batteries. It consumes a quarter of the world's volumes. What increase the carbon footprint of these batteries, that Europe wants green from the cradle. As for the grave, to date, only 1% of lithium is recycled. The Mining and Metallurgy contract, signed on January 18, dreams of an integrated industry, recycling critical metals in the production of batteries. The Belgian recycling giant Umicore is working there, as well as Snam in France. However, Circular Energy Storage predicts that recycling will provide 9% of lithium needed for the lithium-ion battery market by 2025.
So you have to import, or dig. According to a recent study by the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), the European subsoil contained in 2017 less than 1% of world reserves (14.5 million economically exploitable tonnes), but 7% of resources (40.7%). million tonnes identified) of lithium. "The implementation of new processes in Europe could come into being between? 2019 and 2025 and allow converting these resources into reserves," said the BRGM in 2018.
FORTY DEPOSITS
Europe does not lack lithium. The Labex Voltaire has identified 39 significant projects and deposits and 15 exploration or exploitation companies. In France, the only producer is Imerys , which extracts it as a co-product from kaolin on the site of Échassières (Allier). Estimated at 15 000 tonnes per year, the production of this concentrate of lithic micas (felithe) containing 1.8% of lithium oxide (Li2O) is used exclusively in glassworks. In the future, Eramet aims to extract hydrothermal brines in Alsace via an innovative process developed for the Centenario-Ratones salar in Argentina [see box].
The most advanced project is in Finland, where the local mining company Keliber Oy intends to produce in the coming years. Portugal, the leading European producer with 400 tons of lithium in 2017, defends its place thanks to the discoveries of Savannah Resources, Lusorecursos and Lepidico. The other most promising European deposits are in Serbia (Jadar project, Rio Tinto ), in Germany (Deutsche Lithium, in joint venture with Bacanora) and in the Czech Republic (Cinovec project, of Geomet, subsidiary of the Australian European Metals). In Austria, the Wolfsberg deposit developed by the Australian European Lithium could start as early as 2020. Exploration work is continuing in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain.
"The profitability of these projects does not only depend on reserves and grades, it is a complicated equation between its operating conditions, the type of lithium-bearing mineral that defines the cost of treatment that will give it added value. , and the co-products of the deposit. " If it is like Keliber tantalum and tin, the added value is stronger than that of borates Jadar, says Eric Gloaguen, geological engineer at the BRGM, which works on a mapping of lithium with its European counterparts geological services.
SECURE THE SUPPLY
The new extraction processes under study in Europe, "if their development is effective within the timeframe indicated [2019-2025, note], would allow Keliber to produce 9000 tons of lithium carbonates with a production cost of 3500 dollars per tonne, according to the feasibility study published in 2017 ". On the Wolfsberg project in Austria, "European Lithium would produce 11,000 tonnes of lithium carbonates by 2020, with a production cost of 5001 dollars per ton," says BRGM postdoctoral researcher Blandine Gourcerol. High costs compared to those of the Chilean giant SQM (2130 dollars per ton), but which have the advantage of securing supplies of the continent in one of the metals of the energy transition.
In 2015, ADEME claimed that an electric vehicle had to travel from 50,000 to 100,000 kilometers (13 to 27 km per day, every day for ten years) in order for its carbon footprint to pass under that of a gas-powered car. , in particular because of the very unfavorable carbon balance of its battery. By 2018, it was reviewing its copy by judging its emissions two to three times lower than those of a gasoline or diesel car, but with many uncertainties recognized on the balance sheet of the battery and the impact of the electric mix during use . From now on, we can at least hope that in the near future lithium from these batteries will be extracted and processed locally, under European environmental and social conditions.
GREEN LITHIUM IN GEOTHERMAL WATERS
In Alsace, at Soultz-sous-Forêts (Bas-Rhin), Eramet aims to extract the lithium contained in the geothermal sources exploited by Électricité de Strasbourg. For the French mining and metallurgical group, it would be a question of adapting the extraction process in loop (without fatal evaporation) developed for the exploitation of the Argentine salar on which it holds a license. This process combines nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, solvent injection into the solid after evaporation and precipitation of lithium carbonate while the water collected is reinjected into its medium. A process for which Eramet and IFP Energies nouvelles (Ifpen) filed 12 patents. The EuGeLi project (European geothermal brines lithium), which brings together Eramet, BASF, Vito, BRGM, IFP Energies nouvelles,
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