Julien Vattaire –
A report alerts the French government. Interested in the “securing the supply of mineral raw materials”, this document shows that “dependency ratios will remain high, even by 2030 across Europe”. “Only 20 to 30% of needs” in nickel, lithium, or cobalt, essential in particular for batteries and electrical installations, “could be produced by European suppliers”, alerted the French industrialist Philippe Varin, author of this report.
The European Union is clearly behind China, which has taken a 20-year lead
Faced with this observation, Philippe Varin, former president of France Industrie, issued three recommendations to the French government: the establishment of a public-private investment fund to secure the supply of critical metals to the three gigafactories of batteries planned in France, the establishment of two industrial platforms in France and the establishment of a “roadmap” between industrialists and researchers, in particular the CNRS and the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) to launch “industrial demonstrators” on refining in particular.
Following receipt of this report, the French government immediately announced the mobilization “with an envelope of one billion euros”, made up of 500 million in State aid, subsidies and repayable advances, and 500 million to set up an investment fund, intended to “strengthen the resilience of the industrial fabric in metal supply chains”.