The world’s need for lithium is increasing all the time, and while there are mining developments taking place across the globe, including some recent large discoveries, the emergence of a UK lithium mining sector is an exciting development that will take place over the second half of this decade.

At opposite ends of England, developments have brought the commercial production of lithium very close. In the north-east, Weardale Lithium in County Durham has shown that lithium can be produced from thermal brines below the granite rocks of the North York Moors.

The firm has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tees Valley Lithium, which is building one of Britain’s first lithium refineries at the Tees Freeport, so there will be minimal carbon footprint as the material is taken to be processed locally.

Excitement In Cornwall

However, there may be even more reason for excitement at the opposite end of the country. Cornish Lithium has been making fast progress in establishing both a thermal brine and hard rock mining facility and recently opened a demonstration lithium hydroxide plant at Trelavour.

Both Weardale Lithium and Cornish Lithium hope to be producing around 10,000 tonnes of lithium a year, but in the case of Cornwall, there may be a lot more to come, not least because deputy prime minister Angela Rayner recently backed plans to give the Trelavour site special status to operate as a lithium mine.

Extracting lithium from hard rock at the site, which has previously been a clay pit, the project could raise the annual output of Cornish Lithium to 25,000 tonnes a year by 2030.

This possibility has been explored over the past few days, not through more digging in a county where a myriad of holes and pits have been excavated over the years, but from the air.

Something In The Air

As Cornwall Live reports, residents of the county may be curious as to why there is a plane flying back and forth over the county for up to five hours a day. Admittedly, this may be a great deal less notable than a recent spate of reported UFO sightings over the county, but a matter of curiosity nonetheless.

While the lights in the night sky remain a mystery, this plane is owned by Bell Geospace, an Edinburgh-based company that is conducting an air-based geosurvey of Cornwall, with the plane starting its flights every morning from Newquay.

Flying at an altitude of 200 metres, the aircraft will study the area around St Agnes, Perranporth, St Ives, Redruth, Falmouth and Helston, down near the toe of Cornwall. The information it provides will offer a more comprehensive assessment of Cornwall’s geology and mineral wealth than exists now, even with so many mines.

That information will then be used to inform possible further developments in mineral production, which may not just be restricted to lithium. Other possibilities include spotting geothermal energy sources that could be used to heat homes.

If the survey ends up producing some exciting discoveries about new sources of lithium that have not yet been tapped, the amount of material being produced and sent to refineries may be a lot more than the planned 25,000 a year. Further mineral finds could do more to help revive Cornwall as a centre of mining, long after the passing of its tin-producing heyday.

It may be that further surveys could take place over County Durham and indeed anywhere else in the UK that might have lithium or other rare earths that are yet to be discovered. If so, this could further bolster the supply of lithium for the UK, an important resource at a time when the global supply of certain critical minerals has become a key geopolitical concern.

A Confident Future

Like Weardale Lithium, Cornish Lithium has already entered into a memorandum of understanding as it plots the way ahead, with this being announced in September as a partnership with HELM Ag, a producer of battery-grade lithium chemicals.

It offers a further vote of confidence in the capacity of UK lithium producers to provide the raw material that processing firms will be using in the years to come, even as more lithium comes from other sources across Europe and beyond.

For this reason, there is much cause for excitement at what the curious sight of a low-flying plane over Cornwall may lead to. Some might muse that perhaps the UFOs have something to do with this as well, as they might also be interested in this abundant source of earthly mineral wealth.

However, given the benefits of an abundant supply of UK-produced lithium, perhaps the possibility of an alien invasion and interstellar war is a risk worth taking.