For many years, Britons have been using devices powered by lithium batteries, in mobile phones, laptops and, increasingly, electric vehicles. But all of the raw material for those batteries has come from overseas.

However, this is about to change as a historic first, as the UK’s first geothermal lithium extraction facility has just been given the green light.

Owned and operated by Cornish Lithium, the plant will be located at the firm’s Cross Lanes project site near Chacewater. In the first phase, two geothermal wells, each 2,000 m deep, will be drilled and then the wells will be tested. A well dug in 2023 confirmed the presence of substantial quantities of lithium-rich geothermal brines deep underground.

How The Plant Will Work

The brines will be brought to the surface via one well and the lithium extracted, with the water then being returned underground through the second well. This will not only enable the extraction of lithium, but also establish if the heat can be viably used to heat local homes and businesses.

Following this, the second phase will involve constructing a temporary demonstration plant to conform the viability of the lithium as a battery-grade material, with a commercial facility then following to process the material. The firm already has another plant at its other project site in Cornwall, at United Downs.

Commenting on the news, CEO of Cornish Lithium Jeremy Wrathall said the development represented “a key milestone in our efforts to produce a domestic source of lithium from geothermal waters that were first identified in Cornwall in 1864”.

He added: “This marks another stage in the UK’s journey from currently relying solely on imported lithium to maximising the potential that lies beneath our feet in Cornwall.”

The news also marks a major landmark for the company itself, which was formed in 2016. As well as seeking to extract lithium from geothermal brines, it also has a hard rock project in an old china clay pit at Trelavour. This means the company may only just be getting started in producing the material.

Cornish Lithium has also called on the government to take steps across the UK to ensure that 50,000 tonnes of lithium is produced domestically by 2030. Achieving this will require more companies than Cornish Lithium alone to be active in producing lithium.

Weardale Makes Progress Too

Among the other firms in the sector that are at the point of being ready to start production is Weardale Lithium, at the opposite end of England in County Durham.

It recently secured planning permission to build what will be the largest lithium extraction facility in the country, capable of producing up to 10,000 tonnes of lithium a year.

Located at the former Eastgate Cement Works, which were demolished over 20 years ago, the site will make use of existing infrastructure and, like the new plant in Cornwall, will extract lithium from geothermal brines, which are found under the granites of the upper Wear valley.

Speaking after the news broke, Weardale Lithium CEO Stewart Dickson said: “The North East is well placed to be a centre of growing domestic lithium production capability as the region has all the requisite enablers to deliver our borehole to battery strategy.”

This comment highlights the fact that the first Lithium processing plants in the UK are being built nearby in the Tees Valley. Indeed, Weardale Lithium has a memorandum of understanding in place with Tees Valley Lithium, which is building one of the plants, to supply it with lithium.

It has also joined the North East Automotive Alliance, in which it may play a pivotal part in supplying the raw material that will ultimately be turned into batteries at gigafactories in the region.

Meeting Global Concerns

Indeed, the process may be particularly environmentally friendly, given the minimal carbon footprint involved in extracting lithium, refining it and then making it into batteries all within a small geographical area, in stark contrast to the long journeys by sea and from processing plants to distant gigafactories undertaken by much of the world’s lithium.

Overseas lithium comes with other potential problems as well. These include the doubts over the Ukraine-US minerals deal that includes lithium deposits, as well as the protests by locals concerned about water pollution that have halted a deal between the government of Serbia and mining giant Rio Tinto to extract lithium from the rich deposits of the Jadar Valley.

Given these and other developments, the Cornish facility and its counterpart in Durham represent the first of what may be many steps towards giving the UK a substantial domestic supply of lithium, increasing the security of this vital mineral at a time of great global economic and political uncertainty.