Gironde: Launch of the project for a production plant for materials for electric batteries, near Bordeaux

An XXL industrial project for Gironde. The Minister for Industry, Sébastien Martin, participated on Tuesday in the official launch of a future refinery of critical metals for electric batteries, near Bordeaux. He described this project as “essential” to French and European sovereignty, but whose location in a flood zone is contested.

This Seveso-classified factory must be built by 2028 on a port wasteland on the banks of the Garonne, in Parempuyre (Gironde), to convert 20,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,000 tonnes of cobalt per year into sulfates, materials essential for the production of electric batteries.

“Major national interest” “In a geopolitical context which can sometimes be tense or subject to supply disruptions […] we must have the sources of production of these essential elements on the national territory,” declared the minister. “By producing here in France, we will be less dependent on imports from Asia,” continued Sébastien Martin, believing that the project was an “essential element of French sovereignty”. Led by the company Electro Mobility Materials Europe (EMME), representing an investment of 600 million euros, it should create 500 jobs and meet “more than 30% of the materials needs of French electric mobility”.

The future factory, "of major national interest" according to the State, was also selected by the European Commission from a list of 46 projects deemed "strategic" to reduce dependence on China, a key player in the sector - EMME is also calling on a Chinese partner for the engineering of the site. Opponents' appeals It is classified as Seveso "high threshold", the maximum risk for the environment and human health, due to the soluble nature of the products handled, "extremely toxic for aquatic environments" according to opponents of the project, who have initiated appeals before the administrative justice system. They recall that “several scientific and environmental organizations formulated unfavorable opinions” before the green light from the Gironde prefecture, this summer, for its implementation.

State services ensure that the installation “will be subject to the highest requirements in terms of industrial risk prevention”, the company claiming to have gone “beyond the regulations” in its hydraulic simulations, in order to best elevate the refinery in relation to the river. According to the general director of EMME, Sylvie Dubois-Decool, the project will start next year, to “be able to begin its first productions at the end of 2028” and “to be in full swing by mid-2029”.

Machine-translated from French