The price of lithium is so “insane that we may have to get into mining and refining” with Tesla: in a tweet, Elon Musk indicated his desire to invest in strategic metals, shaking the entire automotive industry , but also the mining sector.
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“Until now, car manufacturers bought the products and parts they need directly. Today, they realize that this is not enough and that they have to take control of the resources part, in particular for the batteries, ”explains to AFP Christophe Poinssot, deputy director general of the Research Office. Geological and Mining (BRGM).
In 2035, electric vehicles are expected to replace gasoline engines in Europe.
And in the middle of all the strategic metals for manufacturing car batteries, lithium, nickel, cobalt in particular, “there is quite simply an essential element over the next ten years, which is lithium” underlines Yves Jegourel, full professor of the Economics of raw materials chair at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) and co-director of the annual guide to raw materials CyclOpe, published on Wednesday.
Mining production of this essential element, currently concentrated in Australia and Latin America, is unable to keep up with the spectacular surge in global demand.
Dozens of huge battery factories have been announced all over the planet, and each battery needs about 5 kilos of lithium.
In 2021, the price of lithium carbonate for spot contracts in the United States doubled to $16.72 per kilo, reports the Cyclope.
Similarly, for lithium hydroxides, increasingly in demand for automotive batteries, prices almost doubled (+97%) to 18.82 USD per kg.
According to different scenarios, lithium demand could quadruple or even increase sixfold in 2030 compared to 2021, to more than 500 kilotons per year, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.
Beyond the manufacturers, the States themselves are engaged in the logic of securing these strategic metals for the energy transition in progress.
In Luxembourg, the European Council devoted to competitiveness under the French presidency must in particular address the subject this Thursday, by evoking the possibility of creating strategic stocks, or by preparing the ground for the recycling of batteries in order to “keep” the materials on the old continent.
For the builders, the declaration of the boss of the American manufacturer Tesla, Elon Musk on April 8 “does not mean that they themselves will become mine operators”, judges Mr. Poinssot.
“This means that from a capitalistic point of view, perhaps they will go up to the capital of a mine or a mining operator, to secure their supply chain. There is already Tesla who is watching, ”he analyzes.
Volkswagen and BMW have thus entered the capital of Northvolt, the Swedish group of electric batteries.
In addition to several battery factories across Europe, the new European giant plans to build a large lithium refining plant near Lisbon, with the oil tanker Galp.
The Stellantis group (born from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and Peugeot-Citroën), but also Renault and Volkswagen have signed contracts with the German Vulcan mine project, to obtain supplies of lithium.
Volkswagen also plans to create a joint venture with the Belgian group Umicore, a specialist in materials for clean mobility, to supply cathode materials (one of the battery elements) to the group’s European factories.
Renault also joined in March the consortium of Veolia and Solvay which built a pilot plant to improve the recycling of metals used in battery cells, such as nickel, lithium or cobalt, an essential alternative to extraction.