00:00Europe's path to a green future has a problem.
00:03Its industry needs resources.
00:06This new lithium processing plant in Germany could be key to diversifying supplies.
00:11To get ahead in battery production, resources like lithium are crucial.
00:15But chemical processing into battery-grade materials is tricky.
00:19This refinery here in Germany will be the first of its kind in Europe.
00:22But the continent still remains largely dependent on China to source materials.
00:28China dominates refining of the alkali metal, and with it, the know-how for processing the material.
00:39But to break free of this dependence, Europe needs to build its own material supply chains.
00:44Here at AMG Lithium's Frankfurt laboratory, chemists constantly monitor and test the refining
00:49steps they design for processing lithium hydroxide.
00:52The scientists here have come up with ways to filter out contamination from the lithium
00:56that the company will later refine on a larger scale.
00:59The processes here in the lab will later work one-to-one in the industrial process.
01:07You press the material in here.
01:09Then the cylinder spins really fast.
01:12And as it rotates, the solution is forced out of the filter bag, and only the dirt or
01:17the impurities remain.
01:19And my clean, crystallized material stays in here.
01:21That's basically the process.
01:27The Frankfurt-based chemical company has been building its experience in these refining
01:30steps for five years now.
01:33Understanding precisely how each step works will make it possible for the scientists here
01:38to build out capacity away from the lab.
01:45Spodumene rock from a mine in Brazil sits at the beginning of AMG Lithium's processing chain.
01:50In Brazil, it's ground up and processed.
01:56And in the first phase, we ship this spodumene concentrate, is the name for it, to China.
02:03And the reason for this is simply because there is no other conversion plant who is
02:09able to use this material at this moment.
02:12And then we get back from China, a technical intermediate, into Bitterfeld, where we do
02:20the refining to the final battery grade.
02:23Bitterfeld-Wolfen, a chemical industry town in Germany's east, a location AMG picked to
02:28set up its industrial production, with space to expand the initial capacity five times.
02:36They're still setting up shop here in what may become Europe's largest lithium refinery,
02:40where they're expecting to refine 20,000 tons of lithium hydroxide per year in the
02:44first phase.
02:46But as prices for the product crashed recently, investments are tough.
02:51People are very, very cautious putting money into lithium projects at this point.
03:01Because with the current price level, it's very hard to make an investment case, actually.
03:08The plant here received some public subsidies, and European governments pledged more money
03:12for building up the critical minerals sector.
03:15Recently, the European Union's Critical Raw Materials Act came into force, aiming to eliminate
03:21dependence in material supply chains.
03:24It sets targets for 2030 that 10 percent of materials should be mined in the EU, 40 percent
03:30refined within the bloc, and 15 percent recycled here.
03:37In total, no more than 65 percent of a single material should be sourced from one country
03:41alone.
03:46But despite the build-up of refining capacities, the amount of money pledged doesn't yet match
03:51the need.
03:52If we put these funds in perspective, for lithium alone, you're looking at a mid-single-digit
04:00billion euros of investment needed just to meet the EU's 2030 target.
04:10AMG's lithium refining plant in Germany is expected to make a dent in reaching those
04:14goals.
04:16They are starting to turn the tables on global materials supply chains.
04:20But they won't be able to walk it alone.
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