From lithium to rare lands: plans for an energetic future from Europe

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Tensions such as Ukraine and geopolitical conflicts have made the European Union realize its impact on one or some countries to obtain basic resources.

Russian gas logic applies to the so -called important products, essential natural resources for the economy.

The European Union now wants to gain more self -sufficiency by increasing the internal production capacity of raw materials and diversification of distribution sources. But how? What is the price? This is the theme of this chapter of European stories.

The EU needs important raw materials to achieve climate neutral objectives of the environmental contract in the sectors of digital change, security and space industries and novelty.

European Union has been identified 34 complex raw materials, Except Lithium, cobalt, rare land and magnesium.

But many of them have the highest -risk delivery chains. For example, 63 % of the World Cobalt is extracted from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and 100 % of the rare lands used in permanent IMM are purified in China.

By 2024, the European Union approved the important ingredient law, with the aim of increasing the internal potential of strategic raw materials.

By 2030, the law states that the EU has to be extracted 10 % of the annual requirements of the EU, replacing 40 % and recycling 25 %. The percentage of strategic raw materials from a third country to meet the annual needs of the EU must be less than 65 %.

The Minus Zerois study has been deeply rooted in the history of the ore mountains, which extends to the border between Chekwia and Germany. Here, Tin and Tungsten reserves have been explored since the Middle Ages since the 1990s, which have no longer profitable. Today, the rest of this period is a museum, but energy change leads to new possibilities.

Experts estimate that lithium is an important component of battery production, and three to five percent of the world’s lithium reserves are under the city -cooked city.

Geomet, a private company with state participation, works to create a context -friendly production chain. This is one of the 47 strategic projects elected by the European Commission to increase the internal production capacity of strategic raw materials.

“We will extract nearly 3 million tonnes of ores a year and produce about 30,000 tonnes of final products a year,” says Geologist Tom Wrong, a geologist working in Geomet.

The company plans to produce lithium carbonate, a major ingredient used in the battery industry, not only to extract the ore. It is rare for a company to do this process completely without looking for third countries: the challenges are many and high cost.

How realistic are Europe’s plans?

By 2030, Europe is aimed at extracting 10 % of annual needs, replacing 40 % and recycling 25 %.

Stare Jarmer, the head of the Czech Geological Service Department, suspects that these goals can be achieved in a short time.

“This is an unprecedented goal, because some important raw materials for the EU are not on the European continent. At this time, it is not possible to ensure that some important raw materials are treated at the levels of European consumption.”

When asked if there is a need for critical raw materials that Europe should not be given the proper emphasis on pollution from the Minas Zerois study, the Geological Service Geologist Gebriel Zibinec, the methods of mining, as well as the European laws, in addition to the mining study, are controlled and controlled. “Internal mining studies are not required. The product can be extracted anywhere else in the world. It is not interested in how it is done.

All mineral extraction refers to a certain amount of pollution, although it is completely inevitable, can be reduced. The challenge that Europe is now facing is the right balance between the low pollution and the need for the social fair industry and the higher costs it refers to.