Analysis: Can the Rhine’s white gold power Germany’s green e-car race? – Reuters

Analysis: Can the Rhine’s white gold power Germany’s green e-car race? – Reuters

With an eye on rapidly rising demand from Germany's electric vehicle industry, power and mining companies alike are striving to bring to the surface lithium trapped in underground springs of boiling hot water thousands of metres below the Rhine river.

Straddling an area 300 kilometres (186.41 miles) long and up to 40 kilometres wide, the Upper-Rhine Valley in the Black Forest area of southwestern Germany holds enough lithium for more than 400 million electric cars, geologolists have estimated, making it one of the world's biggest deposits.

It could reduce the reliance of the German car industry, also located in southwestern Germany, on imported lithium and early-stage talks are under way with the auto manufacturers.