With its location at the heart of the European chemical and automotive industry, the Zinnwald lithium project benefits from the long mining history in Saxony and the infrastructure that is already in place there. The Zinnwald ore deposit is located near Dresden and is 150 kilometers away from a planned gigafactory for batteries. The Zinnwald ore deposit has the potential to become one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe with a total resource of 2,662,000 tons lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) according to the revised Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) 2024. In 2022/23, an extensive drilling program was carried out to gain more detailed knowledge of the Zinnwald ore body. A total of 84 drill holes were completed, each with a depth of around 300 m (roughly equivalent to the height of the Eiffel Tower), with a total of 27 kilometers of core samples taken for analysis. The 2025 Pre-Feasibility Study outlines a two-stage development strategy, with Phase 1 targeting an annual production of 18,000 tons of battery grade lithium hydroxide. Phase 2 will build on this and double production to a peak production of approximately 35,100 tons per annum, retaining the original Phase 1 project area and with a mine life in excess of 40 years. The largest lithium ore deposit is located in Échassières in central France. The French mining group Imerys is to mine the critical raw material.
