Without a secure and long-term “sourcing” of critical minerals (cobalt, nickel, lithium, etc.) and rare earths, France’s ecological and digital transition is threatened by the shortage and soaring prices. To strengthen the security of supply for the industry in mineral raw materials, the government had asked Philippe Varin, former president of France Industrie and former boss of Corus and the PSA group, to make proposals, submitted on Monday, January 10. to the ministers of ecological transition and industry.
In the process, Barbara Pompili and Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced the launch of a first call for projects, open until January 30, 2024, with a first “Relieves” to May 24, 2022. They should be focused on automotive batteries and renewable energies, and co-financed as part of the France 2030 investment plan, endowed with 30 billion euros over five years, announced in October by the president of the Republic. One billion euros, shared equally between grants and equity, will be devoted to projects “Risky and particularly important”, according to Bercy and the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
Critical Metals Observatory
The government has followed three major recommendations of the “Varin report”, which will not be published because it includes sensitive data, even industrial secrets, we justify at Bercy. With industrialists and financiers, the State will prepare a “Investment fund in strategic metals for the energy transition”.
Through equity investments and the establishment of long-term supply contracts, alongside industrial operators and mining groups, it must secure French and European supplies upstream in the value chain (mines, refining, first transformation) and recycling. If it invests in mines, they will have to be exploited in a ” responsible “, with labeled social and environmental standards.
The government plan also takes up the idea of a “Critical metals observatory” which, under the aegis of the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), would bring together the administrations and the mining and metallurgy sector to monitor this sector. In addition, an interministerial delegate should soon be appointed to coordinate the actions of the administrations in the implementation of the decisions taken, “By closely associating industrialists”.
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