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(Kitco News) - French mining giant Eramet announced today that the European Geothermal Lithium Brine Project (EuGeLi), which ends after three years of laboratory and field research, has proved the ability to extract fully carbon-free lithium from geothermal brines.

The company said that the EuGeLi project ends with a success, as the first kilograms of battery-grade lithium carbonate from European geothermal water have just been produced by the teams of Eramet Ideas, the Group's R&D and innovation center.

"This is a first of kind because the lithium contained in this water has been extracted inline at high temperature and under pressure on the operating site of Soultz-sous-Forêts (Bas-Rhin) operated by our partner Electricité de Strasbourg Géothermie," the company said in a statement.

The extraction process uses an active solid developed by Eramet, in collaboration with IFPEN, to extract the lithium contained in its lithium deposit in Argentina and finally adapted to the temperature and pressure conditions of geothermal water, the company added.

Eramet noted that the technical objectives have been achieved, and that the next steps will consist in optimizing the economic model in order to assess whether a competitive lithium production scheme for batteries is possible, on an industrial scale, in addition to renewable energy, all made in France and CO2-free.

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