2023-10-05 15:12:59
This is a turning point in France’s energy policy. At the end of September, Emmanuel Macron confirmed the launch of a large inventory to identify potential deposits of metals in our basements, such as lithium, essential for the manufacture of electric car batteries.
The President of the Republic thus displayed his ambition to regain energy sovereignty in the face of China, which is today the leading refiner of lithium (58%) and producer of rare earths (70%).
The last major inventory was carried out between 1975 and 1995. An eternity. At the time, only around twenty minerals were sought after, compared to around fifty today. And lithium was not among the targeted metals. Furthermore, the techniques then used did not allow great depths to be x-rayed.
In 2023, teams from the Geological and Mining Research Bureau (BRGM) will be able to examine depths of up to 2,000 meters. “Thirty years ago, we focused on only 20% of the territory, explains Christophe Poinssot, deputy general director of BRGM. France is one of the countries in Europe where we are most likely to find lithium, particularly in the Massif Central and the Armorican Massif. »
A long work of exploration
How will the BRGM proceed? First of all, several zones will be selected; the whole of France will not be affected. Using different tools: flights over the territory by helicopters and planes loaded with sensors, monitoring of gravimetric and magnetic fields, measurement of electrical conduction and natural radioactivity of the land, use of vibrator trucks to observe the propagation of seismic waves… the BRGM teams will create a photograph of the basement. And it is only once this data has been analyzed that the areas to be probed will be determined.
Lithium exploited in Allier by 2028
Initial experiments have been carried out by the BRGM, which hopes to ramp up the census program in 2024. This first phase could last five to six years. Then, the various procedures (public inquiries) will be launched around the selected deposits. The duration of this second period varies depending on the metal to be extracted.
But it will undoubtedly be necessary to be patient: for copper, for example, on a global scale, seventeen years elapse on average between identification and exploitation. Without waiting for this distant horizon, a first mine around a lithium deposit, identified in the 1960s, should be exploited in Allier by the Imerys group in 2028.
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