Karlsruhe, July 07, 2025 – Vulcan is pleased to announce an updated resource estimate for lithium and, for the first time, geothermal energy for the Mannheim license area in the Upper Rhine Graben. The new estimate is based on the acquired data from the 3D seismic survey carried out in winter 2022/23 and provides information on how much of these resources are contained in the hot deep water of the Mannheim subsurface. This allows the potential for future, sustainable extraction of lithium and geothermal energy to be discussed.

The updated estimate shows a significant increase in lithium resources: the estimated total amount of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) contained in the Mannheim sub-area has increased significantly compared to the previous estimate – from 1.83 million tons to 3.23 million tons. The average lithium concentration in the thermal water is estimated at 155 mg/l based on information from wells in neighboring license areas.

In addition to the lithium resource estimate, Vulcan has for the first time determined a geothermal resource estimate for the Mannheim license area in accordance with the Australian geothermal standard. The estimate of the geothermal resources in the Mannheim license area amounts to a total of 13,387 petajoules (PJ) of stored thermal energy underground. Part of this energy – specifically 548 PJ – is currently already classified as technically recoverable. The total resource is divided into 2,848 PJ (Indicated) and 10,539 PJ (Inferred). This resource would therefore be large enough to cover 100% of Mannheim’s heating requirements for many decades if it were fully exploited. The technical and economic development will remain the subject of ongoing and future investigations.

The Mannheim license area is one of several Vulcan license areas in the Upper Rhine Graben in which the company is driving forward the development of future project phases. It is located around 40 km north-east of the area of the first project phase “Lionheart”, which is currently being implemented in the region around Landau. Vulcan plans to continue to estimate geothermal energy resources in accordance with the Australian Geothermal Standard for all of its license areas within the Upper Rhine Graben in order to provide the public with a better understanding of the geothermal potential.

Parallel to the resource assessment, Vulcan is currently pushing ahead with the preparation of a scoping study for the Mannheim license area. The aim of this study is to develop additional production capacities to supplement the combined lithium and geothermal production of the “Lionheart” project phase – including a possible expansion of the downstream production plant for lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) at Industriepark Höchst.

The plan is for Vulcan to feed geothermal base load heat from the Mannheim region’s geothermal resource into the district heating network of MVV Energie AG (MVV) – one of Germany’s leading energy suppliers. At the same time, sustainable lithium is to be extracted for the production of batteries for electric vehicles. Negotiations are currently underway with MVV to adjust the existing heat purchase agreement to take account of current developments.

Through the combined production of renewable energy and lithium, Vulcan is building a regional, climate-neutral value chain that can make a key contribution to securing Europe’s supply of critical raw materials. The official classification of the Lionheart project in spring 2025 as a strategic project under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) underlines the importance of Vulcan’s activities for Europe’s energy and raw materials sovereignty.

“The progress in Mannheim is another important milestone on the way to implementing our combined project for the production of lithium and renewable energy beyond the first project phase in the entire Upper Rhine Graben region,” says Cris Moreno, Managing Director and CEO of Vulcan Energy. “With the largest lithium deposit in Europe and first-class geothermal conditions, the Upper Rhine Graben has the potential to play a leading role in Europe’s sustainable energy and mobility transition in the long term.”

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