Can Europe's push for critical minerals work?
The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act sets into force aiming to bring production of minerals into Europe and cut dependence on other countries. DW visited a lithium refinery that is now getting started in Germany.
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00:00Tanks, soon to be filled with lithium hydroxide concentrate.
00:04This refinery in Germany's eastern town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen is set to step up production
00:09of homegrown lithium, a vital ingredient for the batteries that are supposed to power the
00:13green transition.
00:14AMG Lithium, a conglomerate dealing in various commodities and technologies, set their eyes
00:20on the growing demand for minerals in Europe.
00:22The processing steps are difficult and are spread over the entire globe, starting in
00:26a mine in Brazil.
00:27And in the first phase we ship this spodumene concentrate, is the name for it, to China.
00:35And the reason for this is simply because there is no other conversion plant who is
00:40able to use this material at this moment.
00:44And then we get back from China a technical intermediate into Bitterfeld where we do the
00:52refining to the final battery grade.
00:55China is still part of AMG Lithium's supply chain, but the company aims to phase the country
00:59out.
01:00Europe, as a whole, is largely dependent on commodities from abroad.
01:04China provides all of the heavy rare earths elements the EU uses, Turkey has a grip on
01:10boron and South Africa supplies most of the bloc's platinum needs.
01:14The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act is supposed to change that.
01:18It sets targets that 10% of materials should be mined inside the EU, 40% refined on the
01:25continent and 15% recycled within the bloc itself.
01:31Ambitious goals to reduce dependency on imported mineral supplies.
01:36But the amount of money being put into ramping up production doesn't match what's needed
01:39yet.
01:40If we put these figures, funds in perspective, for lithium alone you're looking at like a
01:52mid single digit billion euros of investment needed just to meet EU's 2030 target.
02:03Public support for projects currently stands at just 2.5 billion euros.
02:08AMG Lithium's refinery here in Germany is set to come online later this year.
02:13The first delivery contracts are already signed.