News

Large Lithium resource reported at German geothermal site

Large Lithium resource reported at German geothermal site Process of mining lithium and other metals from geothermal brine (source: Simbol Materials)
Carlo Cariaga 4 Dec 2019

With an estimated resource site of 13.2 MT of LCE, the Vulcan Lithium Project has the potential to be the biggest zero-carbon lithium resource in Europe

Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd. has announced that the Vulcan Lithium Project in the Upper Rhine Value of South-West Germany has an Inferred Mineral Resource of 13.2 MT of contained LCE with a lithium brine grade of 181 mg/L of lithium. The maiden Mineral Resource Estimate was done for just one of the five Vulcan license areas, namely the Ortenau license, with the other areas considered as future upside.

With this discovery, Vulcan now holds the largest JORC-compliant lithium resource in Europe. For comparison, the next largest resource is the European Metals’ Cinovec with 7.17 MT LCE.

Technical work on the Vulcan Project in the Upper Rhine graben has been done by APEX Geoscience Ltd., who conducted three-dimensional geological modelling, and the GeORG project, who validated cross-sections via seismic surveys. Dr. Michael Kraml of Geothermal Engineering GmbH did a hydrogeological assessment o the region using publicly available information. Geochemical work, on the other hand, was done by several commercial and university laboratories.

Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium project is being developed at an opportune time because of the projected growth in demand of lithium hydroxide in Europe as part of the transition to electric vehicles. It is strategically located at the center of the EU’s automobile and battery industries.

Source: Vulcan Energy Resources