Germany to reopen mines to reduce its dependence on imported critical minerals 

Germany seeks to reduce its dependence on imported critical minerals by extracting more of them itself, Report informs, citing Financial Times.

The Käfersteige mine on the fringes of the Black Forest has lain dormant for 27 years, its rich mineral deposits abandoned, its gates locked and its tunnels immersed in floodwater. Now those gates are about to reopen.

Käfersteige, which is reported to contain about 2mn tonnes of raw fluorspar, could produce 100,000 tonnes a year after 2029, meeting 40 per cent of Germany’s demand and 13 per cent of the EU’s.

“If we really want a revolution in transport and the resources needed for that, there’s no way around this project,” said Simon Bodensteiner, chief executive of Deutsche Flussspat, the German start-up planning to reactivate the mine. “And we are as good as ready to go.”

It is not the only new mining project in Germany. London-listed Zinnwald Lithium is planning to mine a huge lithium deposit on the German-Czech border in Saxony, while Vulcan Energy Resources aims to produce lithium from thermal water in Oberrheingraben, near Karlsruhe in south-west Germany.