Vulcan Energy Resources Limited – lithium and renewable energy producer – has been granted research permit in Italy for the Cesano area located 20 km NNW of Rome.
Vulcan’s current Zero Carbon Lithium Project aims to produce both renewable geothermal energy and lithium hydroxide for electric vehicle batteries from the same deep brine source in the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany.
The Cesano Permit awarded to Vulcan subsidiary Vulcan Energy Italy Pty Ltd extends over an area of 11.5 km2 and includes an area where a single geothermal well yielded two “hot brine” samples that contained high average lithium-in-brine historical (1976) grades of 350 and 380 mg/l Li.
Vulcan considers the area to have potential for sustainable lithium battery chemicals development in line with its Zero Carbon Lithium business, given the recorded high heat and lithium grades within the brine, and encouraging flow rates.
Vulcan’s in-house geological team in Germany will be collaborating with Italian geologists and local stakeholders to collate and assess historical data, verify the lithium content and assess the brine for potential lithium project development. If successful, the Cesano Project could provide a source of strategic, sustainable lithium in Italy for Europe’s battery and automotive market, and become a possible future addition to Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium business.
“Vulcan is aiming to increase the future supply of our sustainable lithium product in response to significant customer demand. By growing and diversifying our project development portfolio —an initiative we internally call “Project Rollo”—we ultimately aim to develop a global Zero Carbon Lithium business focused on Europe, and to become a significant producer of renewable energy and sustainable lithium for electric vehicles” – says Vulcan’s Managing Director Dr. Francis Wedin – “Ultimately, we aim to leverage our extensive experience in lithium extraction from heated brines to have a materially decarbonizing effect on global electric vehicle supply chains and in doing so build stakeholder value. After an extensive geological review, we have identified an area in Italy with positive flow rate, historical lithium grade and reservoir temperature indications that could be conducive to Vulcan’s unique method of using renewable heat to drive lithium processing, with net zero carbon footprint, for the European electric vehicle market. We will be working with local partners to ascertain the potential of the area in more detail, and ascertain next steps.