When building smartphones, laptops, e-cars and wind turbines, lithium is indispensable. The alkali metal is at the heart of the electrified world. So far, however, German and European companies have only sourced the raw material from abroad. It is mainly mined in Australia and Chile, while China has a monopoly on processing. For Franziska Brantner, this is an intolerable situation. “This is the first semester of business administration: Minimize risk through diversification,” says the Parliamentary State Secretary in ntv’s “Climate Laboratory”. Germany must ensure that lithium does not become dependent on the same as natural gas. The Green politician therefore supports several pilot projects in which the extraction of lithium from water is also being tested in Germany – similar to Chile, only clean, environmentally friendly and sustainable.
ntv.de: In the Federal Ministry of Economics you are responsible for Germany’s non-energy raw materials strategy. What raw materials are we talking about?
Franziska Brantner: We talk about the energetic raw materials every day, that is gas, oil and coal. Behind the non-energetic ones are classic metals that are necessary for the production of computers, wind turbines, batteries and mobile phones. We have to make sure that we don’t become dependent on them in the same way as with natural gas. We have seen how expensive this can cost us.
If you look around at the German Raw Materials Agency, we are already more than 90 percent dependent on China in many areas, especially in wind power and solar power. How did it even come to this?
It’s mostly just individual parts or stages that we’re so dependent on. It doesn’t look so bad with the pure raw materials, but with the further processing. Because it is very energy-intensive, some would say dirty. This has a high impact on the environment, water consumption and causes many emissions. In addition, value creation in Germany has been concentrated primarily on higher levels: technology, researching new things, not on further processing. On the other hand, production in China is of course very cheap. This can hardly be produced in other countries at the same price. And thirdly, the Chinese government simply strategically said: We want to have large market shares in these areas. It’s a mix of all three aspects.
What does it mean that “it doesn’t look that bad” for the individual raw materials?
The dependency is not 90 or even 100 percent, but rather 50 percent, because the raw materials are distributed all over the world. But then you have to differentiate again whether the mines in other countries are in Chinese hands. The raw materials are therefore available in several countries, but they are not mined everywhere. And where they are mined, it is partly done by Chinese companies. And then it is actually often the case that they are further processed in China.
There is a lot of talk about lithium in the electric car industry these days. So far, Europe has met this demand exclusively through imports.
That’s how it is at the moment.
Could that change? In Europe and Germany, several options for mining lithium are being discussed.
It can be mined and extracted in several places in Europe: lithium is found in rock and in very salty water. The concentration is much higher than in thermal baths. In Germany, for example, this is the case in the Rhine Graben. Two pilot projects are underway, pumping it up to use geothermal energy and extracting lithium at the same time. So this is a second use of an already existing technology. I think it’s absolutely right that we check and see whether it can be scaled up. Of course, that would make sense if we had been using clean geothermal energy for heat supply in some areas and cities for years anyway. But there are still smaller test systems. We are far from what is being won in Chile, for example. The second point is the further processing and the question of whether this should also take place here. There are considerations to settle that again in Europe. But that should be considered separately.
Would lithium mining in Europe be cleaner than in Chile or China, for example?
Yes. The geothermal systems pump the warm water up and then it goes back down again. This is not dirty, but a process in which only the heat is used so far. Now they are trying to get the lithium out of the water as well. It works similarly in Chile, but there the water stays on the surface and evaporates. People there are following with great interest what we are doing in Germany to see whether it is technically possible to prevent the water from evaporating and becoming scarce.
And what about rock quarrying?
It’s a bit more difficult, but the Australians are working on modern processes that conserve resources, water and the environment.
How do you rate the chances of success?
So far things are looking promising. But sometimes what works on a small scale is not immediately possible on a large scale. Nevertheless, we are confident that these methods can be scaled up, even though I’m not a scientist who can say: It works.
When do you expect the first results and what does that mean for your strategy of procuring enough lithium for Germany?
The schedules for the pilot projects are ambitious. One is a private company. In the other case, a university works together with EnBW, so Baden-Württemberg is lagging behind. They plan one or two years for their tests. But of course we would never get enough lithium for the entire car industry in Europe. That’s why we’re still working on a second point: battery recycling needs to be significantly improved. At the European level, this is done via the Battery Ordinance. It stipulates that the recycling percentage of car batteries must be increased so that the lithium that we already have can be reused. This is called urban mining. We must be more careful with raw materials and design batteries in such a way that they can be broken down into their individual parts and the raw materials can be recycled. We have already achieved this in other areas such as aluminum. This was not previously necessary with these substances.
But even if we recycle lithium well and use it sparingly, the demand will increase massively – also for other raw materials. Can we meet this demand?
If you just scale up from today’s battery and everyone around the world drives an electric car, you obviously need a lot more lithium. That’s why recycling is so important. Substitute substances are already being researched and tested for batteries that work without rare earths or lithium. It runs in parallel, so it’s not that easy to say that we need so and so much lithium. Who knows if you will still need the lithium-based battery in three years? An incredible amount is happening in the market right now.
If that option exists, is it smart to get into lithium mining now?
To a certain extent, we will also need lithium in other substances and products. And even if we use all the lithium in Germany, we would still be a long way from covering our own needs. That’s why we need urban mining and substitution. And if we operate geothermal anyway, we would be stupid not to use the lithium. It’s just a secondary product. So I think it’s absolutely the right way to start. Also because it would be dangerous to bet on just one horse.
And international partnerships? They were recently in Chile, where there are large deposits. Would Chile be a good partner?
Chile has large deposits in the Atacama Desert in the north that have been mined for a long time. I found it very interesting that the Chilean side is very interested in enabling mining that is more water-friendly. That’s the big problem: The water is pumped up from the depths, evaporates and is then missing in the ecosystem. Of course, it was already a desert before, and the water is also very salty, so not drinking water. But you have to be careful not to unbalance the ecosystem too much. That is why the Chilean government is interested in water-saving technologies. The other is fair treatment of the indigenous people on site. Because they have been living in the region where it is mined for thousands of years. As a partner country, Germany is carrying out many exciting projects with a view to green energies that could be used for mining. We are working to ensure that German companies also get a chance and can contribute their know-how as technology partners. But that’s not quite so easy, because other countries naturally have similar interests.
Which countries are the big competitors?
It’s mostly the Chinese.
And which other countries does Germany have in mind to procure lithium?
In addition to European countries, we are mainly in contact with Australia. But Chile is particularly close to us.
So the goal is not to become self-sufficient and say: We want to be self-sufficient. Are you still banking on globalization?
As Germany, there is no way we can be self-sufficient. We can’t even do that as Europe. Personally I think that’s bad too. We would like to turn to the whole world, be in exchange with as many countries as possible and give them a place in the green value chain. So that these countries also have the opportunity to generate sustainable prosperity.
How do you see the imminent danger that China will start using the processing of lithium and other commodities as a bargaining chip?
I’m not interested in starting a fight with China, but in spreading our risks a little more widely. This is the first semester of business administration: Minimize risk through diversification. It won’t work overnight, but we should tackle this task now. Of course, the companies are also required to do this. I’m a state secretary, not a commodity buyer. But it is clear that we have to pull together because the costs could be very high in the medium and long term.
How is the contact with the companies? Do you get pressure from the industry? Wishlists?
I wouldn’t talk about pressure. We exchange ideas. During the Corona years, many companies realized what it means when supply chains don’t work or that companies that were more broadly based tended to weather the crisis better. That’s why we want to support the government where it’s needed.
Clara Pfeffer and Christian Herrmann spoke to Franziska Brantner. The conversation has been shortened and smoothed for better understanding.
