2024-08-13 06:30:54
Dubbed a “major national interest project”, lithium extraction in Allier should be effective by the end of 2028 according to its promoter. An industrial ambition that does not fail to raise debate on its environmental conditions.
The questions that arose at the end of 2022 about lithium extraction in France are beginning to find answers. In any case, industrial progress. Recently, the lithium refinery plant project in Alsace was confirmed by the company Viridian Lithium, with a production target of 28,500 tonnes per year from 2027. As for the Emili extraction site of Imerys in Allier, it was designated a major project of national interest by a decree of July 5, 2024.
This status, made possible by the Green Industry Act of October 2023, makes it easier to set up industrial sites, in particular by simplifying the environmental authorisation procedure. With this system, France is part of the initiatives launched by the European Union, such as the Net Zero Industry Act, aimed at placing Europe on a par with China and the United States, which strongly support their industries.
Finding a minimum of sovereignty
In terms of lithium, the stakes are indeed crucial. It is one of the key components for moving towards the electrification of road transport. The technological building block of lithium-ion electric batteries will be the main solution for moving away from fossil fuels in mobility, in addition to sobriety and the use of other “fuels” (bioNGV, hydrogen). To avoid being totally dependent on imports and to find a minimum of sovereignty over this building block, France wants to be able to count on its mining resources. To better understand them, the BRGM is also involved in the carrying out an inventory of around fifty elements, with new techniques.
But identifying lithium resources does not mean systematically exploiting them. Not only must the technical and economic conditions be met to transform a project into an industrial success, in the context of international competition that will become more intense, but it is also necessary to implement environmentally friendly and socially approved solutions.
For Imerys’ Emili project in Allier, on its Beauvoir site where kaolins are already being mined, the discussion with the population on these subjects began with a debate by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP). It ended on July 31, after 5 months. The assessment will be officially made on September 30, at the end of which Imerys and RTE (also a stakeholder in the reinforcement of a power line) will have three months to respond to the proposals made by the CNDP.
Several issues raised for Emili
During the 43 events organized by the CNDP, several subjects were put on the table, fueled by 39 actors’ notebooks political organizations, unions, learned societies, national and local associations, representatives of businesses and communities. While the issue of sovereignty seems important for France, local opposition has nevertheless been strong, mainly on the basis of potential environmental impacts. From an employment point of view, the project seems rather well received since approximately 600 people could work on the sites concerned, to which Imerys adds an estimate of a thousand indirect jobs. A godsend in a department with a strong agricultural dominance and where the unemployment rate is close to 8%.
The project would be spread over four sites. The mine itself, in the commune of Échassières, would be built underground, at a depth of over a hundred metres, avoiding too much impact on the landscape. The concentration plant would be built in the same location, where the ore would be crushed, mixed with water, concentrated and neutralised in the form of lithium-bearing mica. This product would then be transported by underground pipeline over 16 km to the communes of Saint-Bonnet-de-Rochefort and Naves, where a loading station for wagons would be built. From there, it would travel around fifty kilometres by rail to the conversion plant in La Loue, near Montluçon. In this plant, the mica would undergo calcination, leaching, purification, precipitation into lithium carbonate and finally conversion into battery-quality lithium hydroxide salt. In the long term, Imerys plans to produce 34,000 tonnes per year.
The operator intends to minimise environmental impacts. The underground mine, the recovery of co-products, the use of a brownfield site for the conversion plant should avoid the use of around a hundred hectares. Underground pipelines and rail transport would replace around a hundred trucks per day. The concentration and conversion processes are envisaged with a high water recycling rate, using water from a treatment plant, which should minimise catchments in the Sioule and the Cher.
Studies must continue on these aspects, as well as on biodiversity and acoustic impacts. Imerys has every interest in continuing the consultations and using the best available techniques to make this lithium mine an exemplary project both industrially and environmentally and socially. In this sense, the Government’s haste in designating it as a major project of national interest before the end of the CNDP debate was rather indelicate. In any case, the administrative facilities that will result from it should not be an excuse to minimize the imperative of exemplarity.
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