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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Hand is not talking to the left hand and some regulations are almost contradicting one another or overlapping,” he adds.Lithium de France applied for its first licence in late December 2020, and if all goes well, Borrel expects to start exploratory drilling by early 2025 (this includes two years of administrative time). The project hopes to be operational by 2028.What is more, Borrel says there is a “fairly tense and difficult market situation at the moment” that could throw future investment into doubt. This has also been seen in the European battery market, which these projects hope to serve, with EU-backed Swedish battery maker Northvolt’s shocking recent collapse.Lithium de France will be looking to close its finance in the “medium term”, which Borrel says will give time for "things to turn around". The company is also looking to secure numerous subsidies and grants available at the EU and national level, including under France’s Green Industry Innovation fund, a €2.9bn scheme for supporting investment in green industries. The dual heat and lithium extraction process of the geothermal projects can provide somewhat of an antidote to the challenging lithium market but requires some of its own infrastructure to be built. Donati says valorising the heat resource in its Ageli project counteracts the resource potential, which he says in France is typically lower than in other regions such as South America, for example. The company’s ambition is to provide France with 40% of the lithium it will need towards the end of the
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