Opportunity knocks for Cornwall
Cornwall’s potential to supply a domestic source of lithium
The launch of the UK’s first lithium hydroxide demonstration plant at our Trelavour Hard Rock Project in St Dennis, Cornwall, marks a key milestone towards the commercial production of lithium in Britain and the country’s transition to clean power by 2030.
This new facility will enable Cornish Lithium to supply battery-grade samples of lithium hydroxide and demonstrates Cornwall’s potential to provide a secure and sustainable domestic source of lithium, which is critically important to the manufacturing of electric vehicles, grid-scale electricity storage batteries, and rechargeable industrial and consumer electronics.
The UK possesses the largest lithium resource in Europe, yet currently imports 100% of its lithium from countries such as Chile, Argentina, China and Australia, which combine high-carbon intensity extraction and refining processes with lengthy transport routes.
The unstable nature of worldwide supply chains, coupled with significant competition for global resources, will have a deleterious impact on the UK’s ability to support industry and meet low-carbon targets, unless strategic action counters the current reliance on imports.
Cornwall has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a domestic lithium extraction and refining industry based on its underlying geology, which hosts lithium-enriched granite.
From 2027, the Trelavour Hard Rock Project is set to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide at a rate of 10,000tpa, which is expected to contribute a GVA (Gross Value Added) of at least £800mln to the Cornish economy and create more than 300 jobs in Cornwall during the project’s life.
When combined with the output of our geothermal lithium projects of 25,000tpa, we will be contributing more than 25% of all the lithium needed by UK industry.
Much of the future demand for lithium in the UK will arise from large-scale batteries to store renewable power from solar and wind energy, which plays to another of Cornwall’s strengths as a pioneer of floating offshore wind technology and solar farms.
In fact, a large power-storage battery is already under construction at Indian Queens, a village in Cornwall, to store energy for when there is a power surge – that kettle-boiling World Cup moment.
Our demonstration plant at Trelavour revitalises a former china clay pit, close to the Indian Queens National Grid substation and Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre. It will benefit from an existing rail connection from the county’s industrial past.
It uses the patented, low-carbon, Lepidico technology, which will enable Cornish Lithium to provide a fully-integrated operation on a single site – from extracted ore to finished product.
This new plant also provides us with the opportunity to optimise this technology and improve the refining process to better inform the full-size, industrial-scale operation that will be ready for commercial production in 2027.
This is all made possible with the pioneering spirit of Cornish innovation and stands on the shoulders of the giants of the Cornish china clay and tin industries.
In my view, the possibility of generating a major new industry for Cornwall is now down to what I call ‘imagineering’ – a potent combination of imagination and understanding the capabilities of modern technology.
I believe we can position the county at the epicentre of the UK energy transition, not only for mineral extraction and processing but for new industries such as battery manufacturing and recycling.
Cornwall’s transformative potential has caused Westminster to listen. Our Trelavour Project has recently been designated as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.
The National Wealth Fund, owned by HM Treasury, is one of Cornish Lithium’s institutional investors, and the hydrometallurgical section of our demonstration plant has been partially funded by a grant from the UK Government via the Automotive Transformation Fund.
Cornish MPs sit on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Critical Minerals and are pushing the case for more investment, as is the Great South West consortium and Cornwall Council.
Cornish Lithium now urges the government to make three high-impact, but cost-free, policy changes to unlock the potential of our industry.
- To set a UK extraction target of 50,000tpa of lithium carbonate equivalent from domestically sourced raw materials by 2030.
- To ensure that the regulatory and policy landscape focuses on delivering this target.
- To establish a traceability standard that will future-proof our ability to use and trade UK-produced lithium.
We believe this will deliver real change, not only for Cornwall but right across Britain.