Lithium: Europe joins the white gold rush
The days of petrol and diesel cars are numbered. In the EU, their sale will be banned as of 2035. That means electric cars will become the norm. They run on lithium batteries, each containing about 10 kilos of the metal. To keep up with this rising demand, global production will need to increase 40-fold in 20 years. Currently, four countries have a near-monopoly on lithium extraction: Australia, Chile, China and Argentina. But Europe wants its share of the booming market. The continent is sitting on lithium deposits but these have never been properly exploited, until now.
