Vulcan Energy delays lithium output target by a year

MVV Energie AG

14/12/2022 11:59

FRANKFURT, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Lithium supplier Vulcan
Energy  VUL.AX  is around a year behind schedule to reach an
annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes because of supply chain delays,
the company's chief executive told Reuters on Monday.
    Plans to build a sample facility in the summer of 2022 were
held back by material shortages because of supply chain
bottlenecks, delaying the feasibility study the company hopes to
use to attract the more than 1.7 billion euros it requires in
investment. 
    The study will now come out in early 2023, with 40,000
tonnes of output reached by the end of 2026 rather than 2025 as
first announced, Chief Executive Horst Kreuter said.
    Vulcan Energy already has offtake agreements with automakers
Volkswagen  VOWG_p.DE , Stellantis  STLA.MI  and Renault
 RENA.PA  as well as Umicore, LG Chem's  051910.KS  battery unit
LG Energy, and utility firm MVV Energy  MVVGn DE>.
    Agreements range from 5-6 year terms to 20 years for the
utility firm.
    It now expects to extract 18,400 tonnes of lithium in its
first year of operation in 2025, using a new technology which
extracts lithium-rich brine from water in underground
reservoirs.
    Yet onlookers like Germany's Karlsruhe Technology Institute
(KIT) see even the postponed plan as unrealistic, pointing out
that the technology is untested and still needs to obtain
various licences.
    A study conducted by the Institute earlier this year said
that it would take 20 extraction sites to reach a volume of
about 40,000 tonnes of lithium per year, which could not be set
up before the end of the decade.
    Asked about the study, Vulcan Energy - which has licences
for about 1,500 square kilometres of land in Germany -  argued
its technology was so efficient it could extract the 40,000
tonnes from just five sites.
    "We base our forecasts on the status of the technology, not
the theory," Kreuter said. "We know how it works."
 (Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Writing by Victoria Waldersee;
editing by David Evans)
 ((Victoria.Waldersee@thomsonreuters.com;))