Eric Pirard reminds us that Belgium does not have lithium deposits. On the other hand, Europe does not lack potential. Lithium is present in salt lakes in the form of brine, or in rock. And this specialist to insist: “These are two very different types of exploitation. As far as the exploitation of brines is concerned. The idea passed on is that they consume a lot of water. In reality, brine is water with a high salt content. . It is simply evaporated to recover the lithium. So, we do not consume water. On the contrary, we purify water.”
According to this expert, there would therefore be no major pollution problems linked to the exploitation of lithium, unlike, for example, the exploitation of copper.
If there are indeed significant deposits of lithium in Europe: in Portugal, Spain, Serbia, Great Britain, Finland. A deposit also exists in Germany. Called Vulcan, this deposit would make it possible to combine geothermal energy and ore extraction. Eric Pirard explains to us: “We are going to look for very hot waters regarding two kilometers underground. By going up these waters, we have both the heat and at the same time, we can extract lithium from these very hot waters. Vulcan has already signed with most major European car manufacturers.”
A large lithium deposit is also found in Serbia. It was the subject of many preliminary explorations so that its exploitation was finally refused by the Serbian government.
Once once more, the exploitation of minerals in Europe is more than ever confronted with the Nimby effect (not in my back yard).
