2024-10-01 12:30:07
If it sees the light of day, this project will be one of the largest mining projects in mainland France for more than fifty years. The National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP) presented, Monday September 30, the summary of its work concerning the lithium mine project in Allier, supported by the Imerys group. Called Emili (for “exploitation of lithiniferous mica”) and with an estimated investment of one billion euros for the French industrialist, this program was the subject of a public debate lasting five months which ended at the end of July, marked by strong citizen participation – more than 3,000 participants in twelve public meetings – but also by tensions on the part of its opponents.
In detail, Emili is divided into three entities: the lithium extraction and transformation site at Echassières, in an underground mine where Imerys has already been mining kaolin since 2005; the storage site, in the town of Saint-Bonnet-de-Rochefort, around fifteen kilometers away; and the conversion plant for refining, in Montluçon, 49 kilometers away. Transportation of ore from one site to another would be done underground or by train.
Imerys promises, ultimately, between 500 and 600 direct jobs, and a thousand indirect jobs, in a department suffering demographically and economically. The company plans to produce, from 2028, 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, which would make it possible to equip 700,000 electric vehicle batteries. The Bourbonnais mine would then be an important link in French policy aimed at building a national sector of strategic minerals and metals, in order to be less dependent on imports, particularly from China.
Divergences d’opinions
The public debate raised local concerns linked to environmental risks (waste management, water use, risk of subsoil pollution, impact on biodiversity) and socio-economic risks (real impacts in terms of employment, territorial planning, sharing of mining revenue for the selected municipalities).
But beyond the case of Emili, the discussions above all highlighted the differences of opinion within the population regarding the ecological and energy transition in its entirety. “For part of the public, the urgency of a transition justifies changing our consumption towards more sustainable mobility, and the production of French lithium is then perceived as an industrial opportunity to decarbonize transport”writes the CNDP in its report.
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