Vulcan Energy to hit the stock market

The German-Australian lithium producer Vulcan Energy is planning a dual listing on the stock exchanges in Australia and Germany. With the intended inclusion in the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the company wants to become more attractive for European investors.

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So far, Vulcan Energy is only listed in Australia. According to company CEO Francis Wedin, the additional listing in Germany is intended to help “expand the company’s international exposure”.

Vulcan Energy – more precisely the German subsidiary Vulkan Energie Ressourcen GmbH – wants to extract lithium in the Upper Rhine region. This will involve filtering lithium hydroxide from thermal water from geothermal plants. At the Insheim geothermal power plant, Vulcan Energy is working together with Pfalzwerke.

The first pilot plant is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2021. According to data from the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) from the summer of 2020, the deep water in this region contains between 200 and 400 milligrams of lithium per litre – comparable levels to some salt lakes in South America.

The financial requirement to move from the pilot plant to the first stage of commercial production (15,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year) is 700 million euros, according to earlier information. The expansion to the second stage from 2025 onwards with an annual capacity of an additional 25,000 tonnes is expected to cost another 400 million euros. Vulcan could then extract a total of 40,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide.

Vulcan aims to start commercial lithium extraction in Germany in 2024. The start-up already has customers: two supply contracts were recently signed with Renault and the South Korean battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution. LGES wants to start purchasing lithium from Vulcan Energy as soon as production begins in mid-2024, and the French car company from 2026.

Update 15 February 2022

German-Australian lithium producer Vulcan Energy launched on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Wednesday after the company received dual listing approval on 8 February, according to a statement. The company’s ordinary shares can be traded on the FSE under the stock symbol ‘VUL’. Vulcan Energy also remains listed on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

themarketherald.com.au, vul.live.irmau.com (update)