Demand for lithium will continue to rise due to the development of electromobility. France should start preparing for this, including by finding domestic sources, as lithium will be a strategic raw material for the 21st century.
“France needs long-term import contracts, but it also needs to mine its own lithium,” said French Environment Minister Barbara Pompili in an interview with the French business daily Les Echos. “If we want to be a society that emits less greenhouse gases, we have to be able to face the consequences: We need raw materials like lithium,” she said.
She said lithium will be a key commodity and natural resource of the 21st century because it is used in electric cars, but also in electronic communications equipment. “If it turns out that we have indigenous sources of lithium, we must take responsibility and start mining it, because we will be able to do so on much more favourable terms,” Pompili further said.
She was reacting to reports that the first potential lithium deposit has been discovered in France, in eastern Alsace. France currently relies on supplies from abroad, mostly from Argentina, where the metal is mined by French company Eramet, among others.
