Cornish Lithium opens demonstration plant in Cornwall
Cornish Lithium has invested £15 million in the milestone facility, and wil produce lithium hydroxide at the facility from granite extracted from an old clay pit. The company added that this method would help reduce reliance on carbon-intensive materials from places such as China.
In a LinkedIn post, the company also forecasts a gross value of “at least £800 million to the local economy and create over 300 well paid jobs for local people.” Once fully operational, Cornish Lithium expects to deliver about 25 per cent of the lithium demand in the UK by 2030. “The launch of our Demonstration Processing Plant is an important step towards a greener, more sustainable future for the UK,” Cornish Lithium concludes in the post.
Chief executive Jeremy Wrathall estimates that the UK will need about 110,000 tonnes of lithium cabonate by 2030, however the country currently imports all of the lithium that is used there. He explained: “We’re home to the largest lithium resource in Europe with enough beneath our feet in Cornwall to supply over half of what the electric vehicle industry needs. This is a huge untapped advantage that is currently being wasted, when it could be making our industries more competitive and resilient to global supply chain volatility.”
The demonstration plant was funded in part by an investment package from the National Wealth Fund, alongside The Energy and Minerals Group and TechMet, along with funding from the UK Government’s automotive transformation fund.
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