Expected e-car boom puts focus on Germany’s biggest lithium reserve

The expected boom in e-car production shifts Germany’s historical mining region in the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border back into the focus of industry actors, Zacharias Zacharakis writes on Die Zeit Online. The Ore Mountains hold about 500,000 tons of lithium carbonate on the German side, enough to produce about ten million e-car batteries. “Twice as much still can be found on the Czech side”, Zacharakis says. Mining company Deutsche Lithium GmbH has recently obtained a license to mine lithium in the region that holds Europe’s biggest proven reserves, and expects the German car industry to be eager to get its hands on the mineral deposit, although there is no large-scale battery production in Europe for now. Also, industry observers say the current high lithium price may not be sustained as producers ramp up their output, and e-car production might not grow as quickly as predicted.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers for background.