An Extremaduran company plans to supply a third of the lithium that the EU will need in 2030

They expect that from January 2025 the construction of the plant will begin, which would be ready by 2027

The future factory of the Extremadura company. | Extremadura New Energies

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  Javier Leal

  @jleal_1[email protected]

Published: 09/21/2023 • 03:30Updated: 09/21/2023 • 07:59

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In Europe there is no company that transforms lithium for future batteries (essential for the manufacture of electric cars). The company Extremadura New Energies is already planning with its team to break into the lithium market, both European and Spanish. So far it is a great unknown to public opinion. However, he has one of the most ambitious energy objectives in the old continent: to exploit the second largest rock lithium deposit in Europe to produce 30% of the 'key' piece to manufacture the batteries throughout the European Union by 2030.

The EU Critical Raw Materials Act says that 10% of lithium hydroxide (which arises from the extraction of lithium) consumed in Europe by 2030 has to leave Europe. Of that 10%, the Extremaduran company assures that they represent 30%. That is, three points out of those 10 would be covered by the Extremadura New Energies project. Another 30% would be covered by a mine in the Czech Republic, which is the largest in Europe, and whose project is somewhat more advanced. The remaining 40% would be divided among the rest of the deposits.

The company already has its particular short-term mental scheme: between September and December 2024 they hope to close the financing of the project, from January 2025 they hope to begin the construction of the plant, which will last two years, to, finally, be able to obtain the first tons of lithium hydroxide at the beginning of 2027.

Last March, the Extremaduran company received the exploration permit, which gives them the green light that in less than a year - and after carrying out a series of measures such as demonstrating the real existence of lithium (a test that they consider is already more than proven) - they can have the pass to concession of the project and be able to exploit it. The latter means, in other words, the beginning of the construction of the plant and the mine work.

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To do this, they hope to present a plan, which they estimate will be ready in the last quarter of next year, which is divided into three parts: the restoration project (how the mine will look once it is finished), the technical project (where what is going to be done is designed and defined, for example the economic cost and profitability) and, finally, the environmental impact study (a work that the company already advanced receiving a positive response last April).

The previous Extremaduran government, led by the socialist Guillermo Fernández Vara, recognized in a decree that all the projects of the companies associated with lithium were considered of regional interest. A recognition, the latter, that they will ask in the company to reduce environmental processing and that they expect to be granted on these same dates next year. The interest in this metal seems to have also been followed by the current executive of PP and Vox. Thus, point 22 of the government pact asks to prioritize the extraction of critical raw materials from the community.

White gold in Spain: where there is lithium and why there are no active mines

Susana María Timón Sánchez

In recent months, a company of the group to which Extremadura New Energies belongs, and which is an expert in lithium technology, has been researching and patented a new process that improves the previous one since they have managed with the same final results to remove the ovens (which burn gas) by a system that increases pressure and temperature (by means of autoclaves). In this way, they avoid emitting Co2 into the atmosphere, they achieve greater efficiency since they take advantage of the heat of the process to generate energy and achieve more lithium from each ton of rock they treat: from 50% to 90%.

The objective of Extremadura New Energies is to extract the lithium from the mine and shred it to later pass it through the new patented process - and that uses wastewater and renewable energies, without sulfuric acid - until obtaining, they expect, 20,000 tons per year of lithium hydroxide (key for the production of batteries) that allows the manufacture of 500,000 Tesla Model 3 cars for the next 30 years. The company expects the times to run. The challenge is great, however, and without going any further, it has been taking almost a decade to build the plant that exploits the mine