Sharjah 24 – AFP: Europe is seeking to expand its lithium mining and refining capacity and wean itself off imports as the "white gold" becomes a vital resource in the fight against climate change.

Alongside nickel and cobalt, lithium allows electricity to be stored and transported, making them essential in electric battery production as car manufacturers move away from polluting fossil fuels.

But Europe mostly depends on external sources for the strategically important and increasingly coveted metals.

Australia is the world's biggest lithium producer, while China is home to 60 percent of global lithium refining, transforming the metal into carbonate or lithium hydroxide.

The increasingly urgent subject was on the agenda of EU ministers and officials at a conference in Paris on Thursday.

It will also be the menu when EU industry ministers gather in the northern French city of Lens on January 31 and February 1.

Europe "really is not on the map" when it comes to mining or processing lithium, according to Robert Colbourn, an analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

The International Energy Agency predicts global demand for lithium will be 40 times greater by 2040, with 475,000 tonnes of lithium produced in 2021.

But Europe will not even meet more than 30 percent of its lithium, nickel and cobalt needs in 2030, according to a report submitted to the French government this week.

The European Union recently added lithium to its list of critical metals.

With plans for at least 38 new electric battery plants in Europe, the question of supplying them with the necessary metals is far from being resolved.

Europe could also increase its South American lithium sources. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile form a "lithium triangle" that is the world's second-largest producer of the valuable metal.

Eramet said it would open a plant in Argentina in 2024 with Chinese firm Tsingshan, with Eramet chief executive Christel Bories saying it would meet 15 percent of Europe's lithium needs.

Chile, which was the world's top lithium producer until 2016, on Thursday granted an exploration and production concession to a Chinese and a Chilean firm.

Each company will be allocated 80,000 tonnes of lithium as Chile hopes to regain its leading place on the global stage.