Necessary brick for the energy transition or unnecessary harm to the environment? The conclusions of the public debate on the Echassières lithium mine (Allier) reveal two diametrically opposed positions on ecology. And the future.
Between 1is March and July 31, 2024, the lithium mine project located in Échassières in Allier was the subject of a consultation carried out under the aegis of the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP). This mandatory procedure for a project worth more than 1 billion euros was a great success according to the opinion of the CNDP. “Nearly 3,500 contributions, more than 3,600 participants in public meetings, the project mobilized a territory which has the particularity of being very rural while having had a rich industrial history. immediately sums up its president Marc Papinutti.
No mine has been opened in France for several decades
France has not seen such a project for more than forty years. No mine has been opened on French territory for several decades and this one has the particularity of involving a mineral essential for the ongoing ecological transition. Lithium is the basic material for batteries used in electric cars and electricity storage plants.
In Échassières, an operating kaolin mine will turn to the extraction of granite, then transported by pipeline to Saint-Bonnet-de-Rochefort for temporary storage before being sent by train to Saint-Victor in the suburb of Montluçon, where the mica will be purified into lithium. The leader of the project called EMILI, the international mining company Imerys, plans to produce enough to equip 700,000 cars per year over at least 25 years.
The company thus aims to participate in the energy autonomy of France and Europe. Échassières would in fact be the first lithium mine to open on the continent. Today, this ore is mainly produced in Australia and South America and 80% of its processing is carried out in China.
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