Lithium de France raises €44 million
When it comes to extracting lithium for EV batteries from geothermal brine, Vulcan Energy Resources is getting competition from France. Lithium de France, a company founded in October 2020 and based in Bischwiller, Alsace, has announced the closing of a €44 million Series B financing round.
Lithium de France aims to extract geothermal lithium, particularly for the automotive sector, and geothermal energy for municipalities. The company says it has completed initial exploration work in the second half of 2022. Now, Lithium de France plans to invest further and expand its geothermal and lithium extraction capacity. However, figures and schedules for this expansion are not public.
So far, Lithium de France has raised a total of €52 million – €8 million by the time the Series B financing was completed and now additional funds from international investors for the upcoming and significantly more capital-intensive phase. Investors include the French Arverne Group, which holds a majority stake in Lithium de France, as well as Equinor Ventures and, as a new investor, the Norwegian aluminium manufacturer Hydro, which also has a stake in the battery materials company Vianode. Equinor first invested in Lithium de France in Series A financing in November 2021.
Pierre Brossollet, President of Lithium de France, calls the Series B financing a “decisive and structuring step for the development of Lithium de France.” CEO Guillaume Borrel adds that “geothermal waters of the French subsoil constitute a clean and inexhaustible resource of geothermal heat for local use, and allow the extraction of lithium, the potential of which is well known in the Bas-Rhin region and the importance of the needs in France and throughout Europe.”
However, Lithium de France is not alone in its projects in Alsace: The German-Australian lithium producer Vulcan Energy Resources founded a French subsidiary last fall for the development of exploration areas in Alsace. However, Vulcan Energy’s focus is currently on the German side in the Upper Rhine Graben.
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