Up to now, the UK has relied entirely on imports for refined lithium. But a new report could act as a catalyst for Cornish Lithium, one of the most advanced companies in the sector with two project sites in England’s southernmost county.

Demand for the rare earth mineral has been rising across the globe, but for the UK, the lack of domestic supplies or refining facilities for contract processing has created a major geopolitical risk, with concerns over the security of future supply.

Some of that is a wider concern across the Western world, as China has raced ahead in establishing lithium processing facilities, as well as making investments in lithium mining in many countries as part of its Belt and Road investment strategy.

However, change may be on the way very soon, with the first mining facilities in the UK. Among the most prominent pioneers is Cornish Lithium, which is working on two projects. The first involves extracting lithium from thermal brines; the other via hard rock mining.

 

How Much Lithium Can Be Produced In Cornwall?

These projects have been in process for years, while the company has raised funds via several sources. But the days when it could be producing lithium in large quantities may be getting close, with a new company report highlighting just what this would mean:

  • Production could add £5 billion to the UK economy
  • Up to 1,000 jobs would be created
  • The hard rock project at Trelavour would produce 10,000 tonnes of lithium a year for 20 years.
  • When combined with the lithium at the thermal brines project produced by the company’s thermal brines project, the amount produced each year would meet 42 per cent of the UK’s total needs.
  • This would support the production of 760,000 electric vehicles a year

Cornish Lithium has been at pains to emphasise how much this could change the lithium supply situation for the UK compared to its present total reliance on imports. Moreover, the report will bolster the case for further investment.

Among those vocally backing the project is the local MP for St Austell and Newquay, Noah Law.

He remarked that there is “no other growth industry in Cornwall that we can say is worth a couple of hundred million today but could credibly be worth north of a billion pounds in just a few years”.

 

Where Will Lithium Be Processed In Britain?

The benefits will clearly be felt a long way beyond Cornwall, and it could be that the report helps to garner more investment and government support for the project, as well as for efforts to build Britain’s first lithium processing plants.

In the latter case, both Green Lithium and Tees Valley Lithium plan to build plants at the Tees Freeport.

Both of these plants will stand a lot closer to the other significant project in the UK, where Weardale Lithium has permission to establish a brine extraction plant at Eastgate in County Durham, with government grant support.

The firm also has a memorandum of understanding to supply Tees Valley Lithium when production does start.

Put together, these developments, backed up by Cornish Lithium’s June report, highlight the significant potential the UK has to develop its own thriving lithium industry.

None of this is likely to be stymied by change at the top in the UK government, as current government policy since Labour took office in 2024 has followed that of its Conservative predecessor, which published Britain’s first Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022.

Across the board, it is universally recognised that the UK must do more to gain access to these vital minerals for various purposes. Having lithium in large quantities at opposite ends of England will ensure that one of these requirements can be met with little difficulty.

 

Will Lithium Produced In Britain Be More Eco-Friendly?

Moreover, the extraction of lithium in the UK will be much more eco-friendly than some of the notorious methods used overseas, such as extraction from brine by evaporation, which is a very water-intensive process carried out in arid climates where water supplies are scarce.

This is not a problem in the brine extraction techniques developed in the UK, while the Cornish Lithium scheme will also use the thermal waters for a local district heating scheme to benefit 29,000 nearby homes.

Even the hard rock project at Trelavour will produce relatively little in the way of by-product and will certainly not spoil the Cornish landscape, as it is located at a disused China Clay pit. For every tonne of lithium ore produced, only half a tonne of waste rock will be mined.

With the report projecting that the output of Cornish Lithium could save 800,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year from shipping emissions, the appeal of the scheme will extend beyond just the good news on GDP and jobs.