Standard: EU wants more lithium, first-rate deposits in Serbia

According to data from the European Commission, the demand for lithium in the Union is expected to increase 12 times by 2030, which will also increase its price, writes the Viennese daily "Standard", as reported by Vesti online.

Lithium exists not only in Australia, China, and Chile but also in Europe - in Spain, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Serbia, and Austria. These deposits are intended to help the EU gain new independence in lithium supply in the future and thus advance the energy transition.

But it is not only since the recent reopening of the Rio Tinto mine in Serbia - where one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe is said to be located - that there has been resistance from the population to new mining projects, as several projects, including the one in Austria, have been repeatedly postponed in the last year, reminds Standard, asking the question - could the energy transition in the EU fail due to obstacles to mining lithium?

Mining expert at the Mining and Metallurgical University of Leoben Michael Tost tells "Standard" that in the last few decades, Europe has massively reduced mining for economic reasons and handed it over to where it is cheaper.

Countries like Australia, Chile, China, and Argentina, now produce more than 95 percent of the world's lithium.

It is a delicate addiction, because lithium is currently essential for the European energy transition, as without it the production of electric cars and most batteries is difficult to imagine.

According to the International Energy Agency, battery production and increasing sales of electric cars will triple global lithium demand from 2017 to 2022. According to EC data, lithium demand in the EU is expected to grow by 2030.

This, the paper adds, could also increase the price of lithium.

In addition, geopolitical tensions continue to shake global raw material markets, threatening import into Europe.

The EU has plans to return mining to Europe, which could cover 10 percent of its annual lithium consumption by 2030 and process at least 40 percent of the metal itself, while new lithium projects should be approved faster.

The "Standard" notes that plans to expand new lithium mines in Europe have stalled almost everywhere.

The example of northern Portugal is given, where enough lithium needs to be mined for half a million car batteries per year, and residents have been protesting the construction of the mine for years.

The situation is similar in Serbia, where people have been taking to the streets for weeks against the planned lithium mine of the Australian-British company Rio Tinto, which the EU and Germany, together with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, now want to push forward again after two years of stagnation. There are 30 million tons of lithium ore under Koralp in Carinthia, but the mining project of the Australian-American company 'European Lithium' has not moved for years.

Projects are slowed down, and social acceptance is low, primarily by economic efficiency, says Tost, stating that not every site can be mined equally efficiently.

"A distinction is made between Tier 1 and Tier 3 deposits. Tier 1 deposits are those where lithium can be mined in large quantities, over a long period, and at low cost. Such mines are economical even with the low price of lithium of 5,000 euros per ton", he stated.

The Rio Tinto mine in Serbia is a Tier 1 deposit.

In Tier 2 deposits, the price of lithium should not go below 25,000 euros per ton, making the company profitable. The price of a ton of lithium carbonate is currently around 15,000 euros per ton. The price fell by 80 percent last year after oversupply.

"The lithium deposit under Koralp is a deposit of 2 to 3", says Tost who adds that this is one of the reasons why it is difficult to find investors for the project.

Most deposits in the EU are Tier 2 to Tier 3 deposits, and their mining is usually associated with much higher risk than Tier 1 deposits.

However, the analysis states, that social acceptance plays an important role.

"In Serbia, for example, residents fear the mine could pollute the soil, rivers, and drinking water. Some farmers around the mine also fear expropriation. And at the Koralp lithium project in Austria, some people are also worried about the drinking water if the springs dry up due to blasting," adds "Standard".

Tost points out that "there are always rumors and misconceptions about lithium mining".

"For example, there are no radioactive materials during mining. The idea that, for example, the landscape around the mine in western Serbia will ultimately resemble a lunar landscape, because it is an underground mining operation in which cavities under the ground are filled with residual material after mining, is also wrong. Efforts have been made to make mining as invisible as possible. But, in the end, every mining operation impacts the environment," he says.

However, some companies are already working on methods to extract lithium in a more environmentally friendly way in the future.

Vulcan Energy, for example, extracts lithium from the Oberrheingraben by pumping hot thermal water that contains lithium. There, the lithium is extracted by a special process and the heat is reused for heating or electricity generation.

The company plans to produce enough lithium to power 500,000 electric cars annually from 2027.

Alternatives such as sodium-ion batteries that do not require lithium may also become more important.

"Sodium-ion batteries are very promising and are very close to commercialization," Markus Jahn, a battery expert at the Austrian Institute of Technology, told "Standard".

The only drawback is that the energy density is not as high as that of lithium-ion batteries, so with the same battery size, electric cars with sodium-ion batteries have a shorter range than those with lithium-ion batteries.

Jan predicts that lithium will continue to play a dominant role in batteries for at least the next five to 10 years – and will be used for several years longer even with good alternatives.

This makes recycling of raw materials even more important.

By 2030, the European Union wants to get 15 percent of its lithium needs from recycling.

"Recycling efficiency is currently not nearly as high as, for example, lead-acid batteries," notes Jan.

The problem is that there is currently no standardized recycling because batteries are also not standardized.

“There are many different types of batteries and different cell chemistries. It also greatly reduces the efficiency of recycling. In the future, it will become easier to disassemble electric car batteries from the battery cell to the whole battery. Then it's also possible to recover 60 to 70 percent of the lithium and ultimately maybe save opening one or two additional lithium mines," says Jan.