This project is part of the French strategy to reduce dependence on imports of this precious metal, essential for the manufacture of automobile batteries.
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The first French lithium plant, a metal essential for automobile batteries, will be set up in Lauterbourg, at the northern tip of Alsace, the project leader confirmed on Tuesday, July 23. This program, announced in June 2022, aims to install a lithium refinery, which will produce 28,500 tons of this metal per year from 2027, specified the Alsatian company Viridian Lithium.
To this end, Viridian has signed a lease promise for a 14-hectare plot of land – and a reservation of an additional six hectares – located at the port of Lauterbourg. The site belongs to the Ports of Strasbourg. The company aims to eventually be able to meet a production demand for 2 million electric vehicles per year.
Alsace is at the forefront of lithium-related projects. A pilot lithium extraction unit was inaugurated at the end of 2023 at the Rittershoffen geothermal power plant, around twenty kilometers from Lauterbourg. The water, taken at 170 degrees from the bowels of the earth, contains 0.2% lithium. The French mining group Eramet and Electricité de Strasbourg (a subsidiary of EDF), partners on this project, are also working on another geothermal site in Soultz-sous-Forêts, less than ten kilometers away.
This project, like that of Allier, is part of France’s strategy to free itself from its dependence on imports of the precious metal, particularly from China. The production of lithium batteries for electric cars is a key element of the energy transition, while thermal vehicles will be banned from sale in the European Union from 2035.
