The industrial minerals group Imerys announced on Monday, October 24, 2022 an investment of one billion euros to exploit for at least 25 years a lithium deposit located in Beauvoir, in the town of Échassières, in Allier. Lithium is used by car manufacturers for the batteries of electric vehicles. Currently, China has a virtual monopoly of the lithium and battery market. France and the European Union lack this essential raw material to meet the objective of abandoning thermal cars in 2035 and replacing them with electric ones. French and European lithium We have lithium mines in France and we will develop them thanks to the new mining code, promised Emmanuel Macron on October 17 during a visit to the Paris Motor Show. Imerys’ announcement reflects this ambition. Operation of the Beauvoir site, which has housed a quarry since 1850 to extract kaolin, should begin in 2027. But what are France’s lithium resources? According to the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), lithium is found in several sites in France, particularly in the Massif Central and in Brittany. In a report made public in December 2018, the BRGM reported 527 lithium occurrences in Europe, including 39 significant projects or deposits. Europe therefore potentially has lithium, unlike cobalt, which comes 68% from the Congo… The most represented countries are Spain, Finland, France, Ukraine and Portugal: Read also: Lithium, cobalt… Why these metals are so strategic for developing the electric car Six significant deposits in France The BRGM report lists 41 “resources and occurrences” of lithium in France. Among them, the BRGM highlights certain sites for their potential: Beauvoir (Allier), Tréguennec Prat-ar-Hastel (Finistère), Richemont (Haute-Vienne), Montebras and Brunet (Creuse). The BRGM also considers that other discoveries are likely in “the surroundings of known districts”, in particular in the Massif Central. He also cites the Montagne Noire, the Maures-Tannerons, the Vosges, the external crystalline massifs of the Alps, and finally in Brittany, the south of the Armorican Massif and Léon. Here are the sites listed by the BRGM: Lithium is found in a wide variety of lithiniferous minerals, which require various processes to extract it and obtain a good quality lithium concentrate. This is a key element in evaluating the profitability of a deposit, since the costs of lithium extraction can vary considerably from one process to another. Resistance in the field Among the 41 sites surveyed by the BRGM, two are already exploited for extractions other than lithium: Beauvoir (kaolin quarry) and Montebras (feldspar quarry). Two other deposits are old operations: the old Châtelet gold mine (Creuse) and the old Chaumette quarry (Lozère). For the others, possible extraction projects will not go without saying, and will have to face resistance on the ground. Lithium mining and processing involves the construction of industrial facilities and infrastructure, and the use of complex chemical processes. Not enough to delight local residents… The Tréguennec site in Finistère would contain 66,000 tonnes of precious lithium, but is also classified as a Natura 2000 area, that is to say with high biodiversity. Its defenders mobilized in February 2022, even if no extraction project has been announced there for the moment. chevron_leftchevron_right