Germany wants to reduce its great dependence on raw material deliveries, especially from China, and is relying on its own funding projects. The federal government has set up its own raw materials fund for this purpose. This is the first time that he has directly supported a project. This is about promoting the technology metal lithium, which is particularly important for the production of common batteries. It is estimated that industry demand will increase enormously in the coming years. The International Energy Agency assumes that the amount required in the world will more than double to around 455,000 tons by 2030. “Lionheart” is the name of the major project now supported by the federal government. Between vines and fields, near the town of Landau, the German-Australian mining company Vulcan Energy wants to filter lithium from deep water in the Upper Rhine Graben. At a depth of four kilometers, Vulcan pumps hot thermal water to the surface in a pipe, dissolves the lithium bound in it, and uses the heat to generate energy. The water will then be pumped back into the depths in a second pipe. That’s the idea. In the best case, an environmentally friendly and lucrative concept at the same time. Commercial production is scheduled to start in 2028. Vulcan then wants to produce 24,000 tons of lithium per year, enough material for 500,000 drive batteries. In the final stage, Vulcan wants to pipe thermal water from 28 boreholes at seven locations to the lithium plant in Landau, thus permanently closing the entire value chain for the first time. However, the costs are enormous: The company estimates total expenditure including financing costs at 2.2 billion euros, while Vulcan estimates pure investment expenditure at 1.4 billion euros. “Vulcan now has to show what it can do.” In addition to the federal government’s fund, Vulcan says it now has all the financing together. According to this, banks give loans worth almost 1.2 billion euros, 250 million euros come from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Shareholders are expected to contribute 528 million euros as part of a capital increase, with the German construction group Hochtief contributing a large portion. Specifically, Hochtief wants to buy shares for 130 million euros and thus become an “anchor shareholder” of Vulcan. According to its own information, the group is investing a further 39 million euros directly in the Lionheart project. In return, the Hochtief subsidiary Sedgman takes care of the “planning, procurement and project management” of both the lithium extraction plant in Landau and the central processing plant in Frankfurt as part of a joint venture – in total orders worth around 730 million euros. Using deep geothermal energy, Vulcan extracts carbon dioxide-free lithium from thermal water in the Upper Rhine Graben.dpaVulcan is probably one of three projects that the raw materials fund at the Federal Ministry of Economics has examined so far. According to information from the FAZ, the other two are said to be about the Australian mining company Arafura, which is planning a mining site for rare earths and an important refinery plant of its own in the north of the country. Little is known about the Canadian project, which is supposed to involve gold and copper. The extraction of Vulcan has been controversially discussed among raw materials experts, after all, the extraction technology has not been tried and tested. On the other hand, critical voices from the business community had already urged people to hurry up, given the high level of criticality in supply. He welcomes the fact that after all the discussions things are finally starting, said Frankfurt raw materials expert Stefan Müller to the F.A.Z. on the Vulcan decision. It is good that the federal government “shows by choosing this project, which is by no means uncontroversial, that it is aware of the risks in the raw materials business and is prepared to take them.” Now Vulcan has to show that they can do it. For future funding, he would like to see a broad incentive for investors to get involved, which also favors smaller projects, says Müller, whose company specializes in financing raw material projects. More on the topic “Lionheart is Europe’s first project that combines direct lithium extraction with the production of renewable energy, thereby setting a new standard for sustainable lithium,” commented the German Vice President of the EIB, the former FDP politician Nicola Beer, on the project. By securing a strategic lithium supply for European industry, the bank is strengthening Europe’s sovereignty and supporting the energy transition. The federal government has already made a financial commitment to Vulcan in the past: at the end of 2024, the Federal Ministry of Economics contributed 100 million euros for the decarbonization of district heating in Landau. Money to support the geothermal part of the project, as it is called, i.e. infrastructure, generation, transport and delivery of geothermal energy. The second funding arrived at the end of July. The federal government and the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse are supporting the lithium part of the project, specifically the processing plants in Landau and Frankfurt, with 104 million euros. This money flows as part of the “Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework”, with which the EU wants to promote the promotion of clean lithium for cell production. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the subsidy is “a further step towards a secure and affordable supply of raw materials to the German economy.” Plants also in Frankfurt Vulcan has already purchased two smaller geothermal power plants. Older systems that have been in service for years. One produces heat for the city of Landau and the other produces electricity for the community of Insheim. And the company filters lithium from both for testing purposes and processes it. In Landau, Vulcan has built a special plant that extracts the lithium chloride from the lithium-containing brine. This in turn is transported as an aqueous solution in tank trucks to Frankfurt, 130 kilometers away. In the final step, at the Hoechst Chemical Park, it is processed into lithium hydroxide monohydrate as a battery raw material and then sold from there. According to the company’s own information, both systems are running successfully in test operation and the end product is currently going through the certification processes of automobile companies and cell manufacturers. Lithium is one of the most important components for modern drive batteries; according to estimates by the Fraunhofer Institute, demand will increase by a factor of six by 2030. Lithium has therefore long been considered “white gold”. However, the majority of lithium currently comes from China. According to Vulcan, the potential in the Upper Rhine Graben is great. In the region south of Frankfurt to Basel there are secured reserves of 28 million tons of lithium equivalent – so-called LCE – over a length of 300 kilometers and a width of 30 kilometers. This is the largest deposit in Europe, so it is also internationally relevant.
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