Alsatian company Viridian recently said it would officially launch plans to build France's first battery-grade lithium production plant, and said it hopes to eventually process local lithium resources to meet France's full demand for lithium batteries.
France is growing stronger in key metals. The first French lithium plant for electric vehicle batteries will be in Lower Rhine by the end of 2025, under an initiative jointly launched by Alsatian research firm Viridian with Technip Energies and Veolia Water Lauterbourg in the province (Bas-Rhin) starts.
The plant will have an initial capacity of 25,000 tons per year and is expected to power 500,000 electric vehicles. This capacity will be realized when the (factory) is commissioned by the end of 2025, and it is planned to effectively realize this capacity in the next 12 to 24 months.
If the project is successful in its initial stages, the company plans to increase the factory's capacity to 100,000 tonnes per year, or power 2 million cars, and create 250 jobs by the early 2030s.
According to experts' forecasts, the 100,000 tons will meet the entire French demand for lithium batteries.
The unit will “low-carbon” refine ore mined from Latin America to produce lithium hydroxide, which will then be transported by sea and the Rhine to the port of Lauterburg, where the project is located.
