2024-02-11 12:45:04
The town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen, until recently synonymous with ecological disaster, is on the verge of becoming a key site for Germany’s ambitious green transition, reports AFP.
It is there that the first large lithium refinery in the country is located, called to play a central role in European plans for extraction and processing of the raw materials so necessary to power electric vehicles.
Lithium, the “white powder”, which the plant will start producing from May, is among the vital metals for the production of electric batteries, so that Europe can reduce its dependence on their imports, writes the agency, quoted by BTA.
The boom in demand for batteries was “predictable”, says Stefan Scherer, head of AMG Lithium, the company. which “got on the crest of the wave” and launched the plant project four years ago.
The Bitterfeld-Wolfen plant, located in eastern Germany about 140 kilometers from Berlin, was chosen because of its “closeness to customers” and the powerful German automotive sector, Scherer added.
Europe sees its dependence on rare metals imports as a growing problem in the context of geopolitical tensions, most notably with China.
While not the largest producer of crude lithium, China has most of the processing capacity globally, as well as a significant share of battery production.
The EU made proposals last year to ensure supplies, increase mining and processing of critical raw materials that are vital to European industry, from lithium and cobalt to nickel in car batteries.
“We are already discussing with the responsible political persons the necessary financial resources for our future expansion,” noted Scherer.
This rush for “white gold,” as lithium is often called, could shake to its foundations and predetermine the future fate of Bitterfeld-Wolfen, a town of fewer than 40,000 inhabitants. The city is a former bastion of the East German chemical industry and for a long time one of the most polluted cities in Germany.
According to Scherer, the first module of the AMG plant could provide 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide per year, enough to produce about half a million electric car batteries.
After adding additional modules, the plant’s capacity could reach 100,000 tonnes, or “up to 20 percent” of European demand, he said. Lithium for processing will be supplied initially from Brazil.
The EU’s goal is to be able to guarantee 40 percent of the refining of materials that are considered critical on its territory. From Portugal to France, new mining and industrial lithium mining and processing projects are on the rise.
For German industry, and especially for carmakers, moving lithium production means “increasing their resilience in the event of a strain on the international supply chain,” according to Yoan Zimmer, an e-mobility specialist at the Transport and Environment think tank.
In a former mining area in eastern Germany – Zinwald, located near the Czech border, a project that is backed by AMG aims to complete the chain, developing a lithium deposit considered promising.
The supply of large quantities of lithium locally is difficult to achieve, as evidenced by the modest 10 percent target set by the EU for the extraction of this critical metal.
However, projects like the one at Zinwald could become a “cog of vital importance”, Anton du Plessis, chief executive of Zinwald Lithium, told AFP.
To give green industries a strong foothold locally, the EU “needs to ensure it has the entire supply chain in place”, including mining, says Du Plessis, who hopes the Zinwald mine will be operating at full capacity by the end of the decade .
If mining is only a partial solution, new processing capacity planned in Europe could “completely cover demand”, according to Cornelius Behr, an analyst at IW Consult.
However, according to him, the implementation of the current projects remains uncertain, and the timelines for the creation of new production sites – between five and ten years, mean that the EU’s goal for 2030 “will not be easy to achieve”.