Australian miner aims to jump-start European lithium mining for growing EV market

An Australian mining company wants to become Europe’s first lithium producer in hopes of supplying a fast-growing EV supply chain on the continent, the latest entrant in a push to establish a European battery-grade lithium industry.

Perth-based European Lithium Ltd has agreed to go public on the US Nasdaq market through the now popular method of merging with another special purposes company, this one called Sizzle Acquisition Corp, to generate construction and start-up capital as it completes a feasibility study into the project.

The merged company will be called Critical Metals, which aims to supply around 70,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate annually from the Austrian mine starting in 2025, enough for some 200,000 EV batteries a year.

Under terms of the merger, Critical Metals, will take ownership of European Lithium’s mining project in Wolfsberg, Austria, which the company claims holds an exclusive license to repurpose a former Austrian government-constructed lithium mine.

Paris-based minerals giant Imerys also plans to develop a lithium mine to meet projected demand from European EV makers, laying out plans late last month to start shipments around 2028.

Imerys’ project is slated to be developed on the site of a century-old kaolin mine in Echassieres, central France, with the company targeting 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide production each year from 2028  —  enough to “equip approximately 700,000 electrical vehicles per year.”

France has set an objective to manufacture 2 million EVs by 2030.

“It is essential to achieve energy and industrial independence by becoming a leader in low carbon technologies,” Agnes Pannier-Ruynacher, France’s minister of energy transition, said in a statement.

European Lithium has already announced it holds a memorandum of understanding pact with BMW, which, if finalised, could create one of the largest direct pre-payment supply contracts from an original equipment manufacturer in Europe in the lithium mining industry.

“The need for additional battery-grade lithium in Europe will only continue to accelerate as demand for EVs continues to outstrip supply, Tony Sage, executive chair of Critical Metals said.

“The project is poised to become the first major source of battery-grade lithium in Europe, the world’s leading EV market, capable of supporting the production of approximately 200,000 EVs per year.”

Austria and France are both members of the European Union, which plans to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans starting in 2035.

Mining giant Rio Tinto’s still hopes to win back exploration licenses over the Jadar lithium project in Serbia after they were revoked by the government in January.
The mine was slated to produce enough lithium to power 1 million electric vehicles.

The Jadar mine was expected to produce 58,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium carbonate per year.

“A lot of supply is going into China, and China’s own needs are growing,” Critical Metals Sage said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The Asian nation’s domination of the market means “there are another four or five players in Europe also hoping to get into production” and “we are going to be the first,” he said.