Council in Landau, Germany approves construction of geothermal lithium plant

Landau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (source: atreyu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The City Council of Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany has approved an agreement with Vulcan Energy (Vulcan) to begin construction of an integrated geothermal energy generation  and lithium extraction plant (G-LEP) at the site of the planned “Am Messegelände Südost” business park.

Following the fulfillment of relevant conditions, Vulcan will also be able to acquire the land for the first phase of the Zero Carbon Lithium project. These conditions include the partial implementation of the proposed development plant for the business park in which the property is located.

“The decision by the Landau City Council is not only an important step towards the implementation of the first phase of our ZERO CARBON LITHIUM project, but also underlines the enormous progress that has been made Efforts to create a more sustainable end-to-end supply chain for battery-powered electric vehicles in Europe have already been achieved,” said Cris Moreno, Managing Director and CEO of Vulcan. ”

“This is a collective effort to involve all stakeholders and we are very pleased that the city of Landau and its administrative bodies are working with us to realize the enormous benefits of our project for the Landau region and beyond. This positive decision has a decisive influence on the risk assessment of the first expansion phase.”

The proposed land acquisition is a crucial step in completing the operational areas for the first phase of the project and serves the expand the current operating space in the Frankfurt-Höchst Industrial Park. It also bolsters Vulcan’s future capacity following the opening of a Lithium Extraction Optimization Plant at the site of the Landau geothermal power plant just a few weeks ago.

For the first phase of commercial operations, Vulcan aims to have a production capacity of 24,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year. According to Moreno, the company is aiming to produce the first ton of lithium at the optimization plant by the 1st quarter of 2024 and the complete the financing of the first project phase by the end of the 2nd quarter.

Source: Wall Street Online Germany