Czechia – As Europe is looking for carbon-free energy sources, Czechia found a new interest in its lithium deposits.
Indeed, the Czech Republic owns Europe’s biggest lithium deposit. Czech Government recently defined new plans to boost lithium mining and therefore, Czech economy.
So far, exploration has shown that the ground close to the village of Cinovec, close to the German border, 100 km northwest of Prague, was holding approximately 3 to 5% of the world’s known lithium reserves.
The so called “white gold” became increasingly important in the past decade as it is used among others things to produce batteries.
Without lithium-based energy storage, energy transition or e-mobility would be impossible according to our current technologies and knowledge.
According to the Czech Chambre of Commerce, the exploitation of lithium reserves could be a real “game changer” for Czechia, as prices have skyrocketed recently.
„Lithium is a key raw material for e-mobility, especially for battery storage. This is why we are working on starting extraction as soon as possible, ideally in the year 2026,” said Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
German media DW reports that Czechia has already concluded a Memorandum of Cooperation with the German state of Saxony about possible cooperation on lithium extraction.
According to current anticipations, the explotiation of lithium could provide 1,000 jobs in the region during 25 years, and the construction of huge factory to produce batteries for electrical vehicules could even more impact the economy of the region of Usti nad Labem.
Meeting with the local mayors, in favour of the project, Prime Minister Fiala declared that “What they want is for us to set the conditions and rules and the whole project in such a way that it takes into account the interests of residents, citizens and the whole region”.
According to the electricity producer state company CEZ, the aproval for lithium extraction procedure should take place at the end of the current year. The company seems sure of the outcome, as it has already spent almost 41 millions euros to buy a plot for the processing plant building.