For several years, the UK has appeared to be on the brink of a full-scale lithium mining industry getting underway. However, a new contract involving a US oil company may be the key step in finally getting production started.

Cornish Lithium has signed a deal with Halliburton to drill two integrated wells at its geothermal brines project at Cross Lanes in Cornwall. These will be designed to establish the potential for lithium to be commercially extracted.

The wells will make it possible for Cornish Lithium to establish the following facts:

  • If the extraction work can be sustained
  • The necessary water reinjection rates
  • The amount of lithium in the brine, which comes from a huge 280 million-year-old granite bed underlying a large area of Devon and Cornwall.

In addition, the wells will enable a further assessment to be carried out on the potential for the geothermal wells to provide heating for nearby homes.

 

How Important Will The Results From The Test Wells Be?

The information gathered from the wells will enable a final decision to be made on the viability of the project, which was recently boosted by an extra £7.2 billion of government funding via the DRIVE35 Programme.

If the wells provide confirmation of the viability of the project, this will provide a huge kick-start for the lithium mining industry. Cornish Lithium also has a second project, a hard rock extraction scheme in an old China clay pit at Trelavour.

Along with the thermal brine extraction project being run by Weardale Lithium in County Durham, the project is one of the key components in what is anticipated to be a prominent new mining sector in the UK that will create thousands of jobs.

At present, all the lithium used in Britain comes from overseas, but this could be about to change, with thousands of tonnes being mined or extracted from brines every year.

Critically, it also means that the contract processing of lithium in the UK, set to begin at two plants in the north-east of England, can use domestic lithium supplies.

 

How Can A Domestic Lithium Industry Grow Once UK Mining Starts?

Both plants, owned by Tees Valley Lithium and Green Lithium respectively, will be located in the Tees free port, enabling easy import and export of lithium by sea, but there will be an added advantage of some of that coming from a domestic source.

Indeed, a memorandum of understanding is in place that lithium extracted by Weardale Lithium can be supplied to the Tees Valley Lithium plant. 

The development of both primary sources of lithium and processing facilities in the UK may help to encourage further developments, such as the construction of new gigafactories, enabling the full process from mining to the final batteries to occur within Britain.

A primary benefit of this will be to improve the security of the UK’s rare earth mineral supplies at a time when this may be a key future issue, not least through China’s present domination of the lithium industry and the potential geopolitical leverage this brings.

 

What Role Does UK Lithium Mining Have In The Critical Minerals Strategy?

The government’s updated Critical Minerals Strategy, published last year, highlighted the need for the UK to secure abundant sources of several minerals, one of which was lithium.

Others included:

  • Copper
  • Aluminium
  • Zinc
  • Nickel
  • Titanium
  • Beryllium
  • Chromium
  • Manganese
  • Tungsten

Many of these materials can only come in large quantities through imports; for example, substantial quantities of 18 minerals, including titanium, beryllium and chromium, are supplied through an international agreement with Kazakhstan, signed in 2023.

Nonetheless, the strategy also envisages that up to a fifth of critical minerals should be sourced domestically, with lithium sources in Cornwall and County Durham being listed among the areas where the UK could rely on domestic supplies coming forth.

It is for this reason that the government has sought to back lithium mining in the UK and both Cornish Lithium and Weardale Lithium have received government funding to help them on their way, as well as gaining planning permission for extraction facilities.

However, now is the key moment, when the investigative work undertaken by Halliburton in one corner of Cornwall will provide the moment of truth.

Should this provide the results Cornish Lithium is looking for, progress should then be swift towards establishing production so that, by the 2030s, tens of thousands of tonnes of lithium will be produced domestically.

As the Weardale project also relies on brines, results in Cornwall will be watched closely there as well.

This could be the moment when the UK is transformed from being a 100 per cent lithium importer to a producer, with the mining sector encouraging further growth in processing facilities across the country.