Manufacturers need at least ten kilograms of lithium for the batteries of an electric car.

However, the public information varies greatly depending on the type and size of the battery.

However, the trend is undisputed: The demand for lithium will increase enormously due to the expected boom in electricity-driven cars.

Lithium is not scarce worldwide, but it is either mined from salt lakes in Bolivia and Chile with a very high demand for water.

Or the substance, which investors have already called “white gold”, comes, as is still common today, for the most part from China.

The more electric mobility advances, the more the European automotive industry will become dependent on China.

Bernd Freytag

Business correspondent Rhein-Neckar-Saar based in Mainz.

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The still young German-Australian company Vulcan Energy promises a remedy.

In the Upper Rhine Rift, Vulcan wants to use geothermal boreholes to bring thermal water up from deep layers of the earth and filter out the lithium bound in it.

The supply of lithium is undisputedly large, as are Vulcan's plans.

However, the Karlsruhe-based company co-founded by the German Horst Kreuter has actually only bought an old geothermal power plant in Insheim, Palatinate, for a good 31 million euros from the local Pfalzwerke, which now has to be converted for lithium production.

In addition, the company said it secured five new licenses in the Upper Rhine Graben at the beginning of January.

However, experience shows that new geothermal wells often encounter resistance on site.

Up to 40,000 tons

Illuster, on the other hand, is already reading the list of potential buyers: Volkswagen, the Opel parent company Stellantis, Renault, the Belgian recycling group Umicore and the battery manufacturer LG Chem have already signed long-term supply contracts. Vulcan promises its customers not only to secure the supply of raw materials from Europe, but also to use significantly less water than in conventional production. In addition, the power plants continue to deliver CO2-free energy.

The company has budgeted 1.8 billion euros for the entire development of the production chain. The parent company Vulcan Energy Resources is listed in Australia - allegedly because listing was quicker and easier there - and has already raised capital in this way. The board of directors ended interim allegations by a fund that Vulcan was misleading investors in a settlement in December.

Now, apparently shortly before the planned second IPO in Frankfurt, Vulcan is reporting another major step in building up its business. Together with the chemical company Nobian - a spin-off from AkzoNobel - Vulcan wants to build a first system in Frankfurt's Höchst Chemical Park to convert lithium chloride into the high-purity lithium hydroxide required for battery production. The technology has been tried, said a spokeswoman. However, it still has to be checked whether the by-products chlorine gas and hydrogen produced during this "lithium electrolysis" can also be processed further on site by Nobian as planned. According to Vulcan, it has already secured a plot of land, but the feasibility of the project will first be examined. In a second step, a demonstration system is to be built.The actual plant will only be built after this trial phase has been successfully completed. Neither company gave details of the financing.

Nobian managing director Jürgen Baune is quoted as saying that they are very happy about the cooperation.

Nobian could thus "establish itself as an important player in the supply of raw materials for the battery industry." If the plans work, Vulcan will deliver the first "Zero-Caron-Lithium" in 2024.

According to earlier information, a total of 15,000 tons per year will then be produced in two plants.

In a further step, three plants are to be added and the capacity increased to 40,000 tons.

According to the company, this could produce batteries for at least one million electric cars a year.