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Lithium in Europe - Is a Sustainable Cycle Possible?

October 28, 2025

Lithium is an essential raw material for electric car batteries. Europe is completely dependent on imports. Demand is so high that plans are now underway to develop Europe's own lithium deposits.

https://p.dw.com/p/525BO
White powder (lithium) falls from a conveyor belt onto a white mound of lithium.
Image: New Docs

But can this be done sustainably?

Mountains of lithium are piled up in the open air. Next to them stands a filling machine that fills large transport bags with lithium powder.
Image: New Docs

The expansion of electromobility has made lithium a raw material of strategic importance. Global demand has risen sharply in recent years. "By 2030, demand will grow another five to seven times," predicts Michael Schmidt of the German Raw Materials Agency.

Saltwater basins lie in a semicircle in the barren highlands of South America, glowing green to turquoise. In the background, you can see the white mounds of lithium.
In the South American highlands, lithium is dissolved in water. To extract the lithium, the brine is pumped out of the ground and the water evaporates in salt lakes. This creates an environmental problem: the groundwater level in the region drops significantly.Image: New Docs

Until now, Europe has been dependent on supplies from South America, Australia and China. The European Union now aims to cover at least ten percent of its demand from its own production by 2030. The bloc also wants to process lithium here, as well as manufacture batteries and boost recycling. The aim is to establish a lithium cycle in Europe. Can this work? And what of the impact of lithium mining on the environment?

A computer graphic shows the current Beauvoir mine and the large lithium deposits beneath it.
Europe's largest lithium mine is planned in the French Massif Central.Image: New Docs

The documentary visits places that could determine the success of a European lithium cycle: for example, a quarry in the French Massif Central, where one company could very soon be setting up one of Europe's largest lithium mines;

A graphic clearly illustrates how the hot water is extracted from the earth via a first borehole and then the lithium-poor water is returned to the earth via a second borehole.
The water from the geothermal power plant on the Upper Rhine contains lithium. First, the hot water is used to generate thermal energy, then the lithium is extracted and the remaining water is pumped back through a second borehole.Image: New Docs

or a pilot plant in the Upper Rhine Plain, where lithium is extracted not from rock but from hot deep geothermal brines. Whether in a refinery, a research facility for battery cells or a recycling plant for electric car batteries, each stage presents technological challenges for the development of a lithium cycle.

An old car battery in a shredder shortly before it is mechanically dismantled.
In Braunschweig, researchers are investigating how recycling old car batteries can filter out as much lithium as possible in order to return it to the raw material cycle. Image: New Docs

The documentary observes the work of scientists researching resource-saving methods of lithium extraction and hears the views of experts investigating how much lithium Europe actually needs.
 

Broadcasting Hours:

DW English

TUE 11.11.2025 – 01:15 UTC
TUE 11.11.2025 – 04:15 UTC
WED 12.11.2025 – 09:15 UTC
WED 12.11.2025 – 16:15 UTC
WED 12.11.2025 – 21:15 UTC
THU 13.11.2025 – 12:15 UTC
SAT 15.11.2025 – 08:15 UTC
SUN 16.11.2025 – 13:15 UTC

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