Vulcan believes that "unprecedented" demand for lithium chemicals in the European Union will make the EU "the next China", replicating last decade's supply shortages and price spike with European battery production capacity set to increase rapidly with the ramping up of lithium-ion and associated cathode production.

 

The junior has delivered a resource of 722,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent with brines grading 181 milligrams per litre.

 

Germany's Insheim is associated with a geothermal energy licence owned by Pfalzwerke Geofuture.

 

Managing director Dr Francis Wedin said the ability to use data from producing wells at Insheim allowed for increased confidence in the resource category.

 

Insheim is Vulcan's best option to get into the fast track and ahead of an expected inflection point in 2023, with EU demand forecast to eclipse today's entire global battery quality lithium demand by the mid-2020s.

 

The company did the deal late last year with Pfalzwerke, just months after it tilted towards lithium, and now claims resources of 13.95 million tonnes across two of its six licences, calling its Zero Carbon Lithium project "the fastest growing lithium project in the world".

 

It previously determined an inferred resource of 13.2Mt LCE for its Ortenau licence.

 

Pfalzwerke is pumping brines from around 2900m below the Rhine Valley, but is reinjecting the lithium.

 

Vulcan is examining options to construct a lithium extraction demonstration plant at Insheim, earning up to 80% of the lithium rights by stripping out the lithium before reinjection.

 

The company expects to release a scoping study later this quarter. 

 

Shares in the junior, which have traded between A14-19c since Vulcan emerged from Koppar Resources last November, were up 6% in afternoon trade to 17.5c, valuing the company at $8.5 million.