The chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has claimed the county has lithium resources in its granite that no other part of the UK can emulate.
Mark Duddridge, who is also the boss of food firm Ginsters told the Daily Express the presence of the material in huge quantities in granite deposits is what makes the county special, as this combination is found in only five known locations in the world, with none of the others being in Britain.
He noted that the granite has been extracted for a long time because of the tin and copper for which Cornwall is famous being embedded in it.
“But what a number of businesses have realised is that lithium – which was really a useless by-product of the first Industrial Revolution – is also in high concentration of the granite,” he added.
He noted several firms have been examining how the substance can be extracted, including through pumping water into rocks that comes back as super-pressured steam for geothermal heating.
“What we’ve been putting money behind is to research the technology behind extracting that lithium. That’s one way of doing things and other companies are also looking at lithium in its hard rock form,” Mr Duddridge, noting that it may be possible to extract lithium with no emissions.
Among the initiatives being Backed by the LEP is what could be the first lithium recovery plant in Europe. It is spending £2.9 million on the project, which could lead to the creation of a ‘gigafactory’ in Cornwall to produce lithium products.
Although Cornwall is the most promising site for lithium extraction in Britain, it is not the only one.
Last month, it was revealed Northern Lithium is to explore under the granite of County Durham to seek out the material.
Among the beneficiaries could be the Nissan car plant in nearby Sunderland, which would use lithium in electric car batteries.