European lithium juniors buff up their green credentials

But although lithium could hold the key to decarbonising transport, traditional mining methods often carry a heavy environmental cost. As a slew of new European lithium projects start up to meet booming demand, the challenge for juniors will be how to deliver a rapid ramp up of production, without compromising on the very environmental principles that are driving the demand in the first place.European Metals is one of the miners touting the low carbon credentials of their project to differentiate themselves in the crowded lithium junior miner space.The company plans to source 100% renewable energy for its Cinovec project in the Czech Republic from its joint venture partner CEZ, the Czech state-controlled power utility. European Metals is also considering the use of electric mining equipment, to further reduce the carbon footprint of the project. Water usage is also expected to be less than 5% of Chilean brine producers."Cinovec has the potential to have the lowest overall environmental impacts compared to other conventional lithium battery metals projects, not only in Europe but also on a global basis," said European Metals executive chairman Keith Coughlan."We expect the environmental credentials of the Cinovec project will help make its product valuable to end users, particularly in light of the new EU requirements in relation to greenhouse emissions."There are two main sources of commercial lithium production. Hard rock mining of spodumene, and brine. Brine mining, as is widely practiced in South America, can carry a heavy environmental burden, particularly in areas where water is scarce, and in fragile remote ecosystems. One UK-based junior, Cornish lithium, hopes to avoid these concerns through the use of selective solution mining."What the industry has started to do is to move toward direct lithium extraction technology, without evaporation," Jeremy Wrathall, CEO of Cornish Lithium, told Mining Journal. This technology selectively precipitates lithium out of the solution, which can then be returned otherwise unchanged and unconcentrated.Rather than concentrating lithium rich brines, increasing the valuable metal content but also sharply concentrating other elements including sodium chloride, selective solution technology pulls out the lithium, leaving the water otherwise unaltered. Cornish Lithium will also use the heat of the geothermal brines it extracts to generate power. "The two products will be heat and lithium," Wrathall said.Vulcan Energy is another junior that has attracted attention to its geothermal brine operations. Vulcan's aims to produce zero carbon lithium from brine at its project in the Rhine valley, Germany. The company in September 2021 announced first production from its pilot plant. Vulcan managing director, Francis Wedin, claimed the project "is likely to be the first raw materials project with net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the world".Cornish Lithium is also developing a hard rock project at Trelavour. The company is looking at more environmentally friendly ways to extract the lithium from the spodumene, compared to the roasting currently practiced by spodumene processors in China."If the world is to supply the demand that is expected we'll have to look at novel methods," Wrathall said.Another environmental concern with lithium production is the high cost of logistics. Currently Chinese companies dominate the processing space, and moves to build European processing capacity have lagged behind the pace of battery capacity expansion. This raises the prospect that spodumene mined in Europe could end up having to make a round trip to China, before ending up back at a gigafactory near to where it was extracted.This has left mining juniors keen to find local sources of demand for their material. Cornish Lithium in November announced an investment of up to £18 million ($24 million) from TechMet. The terms of the deal will allow the company to prioritise UK buyers. "It is very important that the UK does capture that raw material supply chain, in a low carbon way," Wrathall said.Another company seeking local demand for its materials is Savannah Resources, which is developing the Mina Do Barroso mine in Portugal, where it hopes to capitalise on growing battery demand without relying on Chinese processing."Hopefully that there might be a commercial plant in Europe, so you can avoid the vast transport chain," Savannah CEO David Archer told Mining Journal. Savannah is targeting net zero carbon emissions after five years of production, as it capitalises on local renewable power. The company has access to Portugal's electricity grid, which is currently around 60% renewable thanks to the country's hydroelectric power supply. But Savannah is also looking to increase its share of renewable energy, potentially by solar power generation.And Archer said the company had ambitions to deliver net zero over the whole life of mine, through carbon sequestration by tree planting around the site.Europe has been a hard region for miners to operate in recent decades, as a combination of population density, stringent environmental regulations, and high costs. But as the climate crisis continues to move to the forefront of policy, governments are increasingly relying on new energy technology to drive their decarbonisation plans. That presents a paradox, the best way to protect the climate, in Europe and globally may be to prioritise local mining. The challenge is now for producers to rise to meet the challenge, but producing lithium that is not just green in application, but green to produce, and green to ship.

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