Cornish Lithium granted UK government funds for demo processor at hardrock mine project

UK lithium mine developer Cornish Lithium has secured additional funding from the UK government's Innovate UK scheme, to be used to construct the hydrometallurgical section of a demonstration scale processing plant at its Trelith processing site, part of its Trelavour Hard Rock Lithium Project near St. Austell in southwest England.

This marks a step towards the company's planned commercial production of lithium hydroxide from 2026.

Trelavour, one of several mine projects being developed by Cornish Lithium, has the potential to produce an average of 7,800 mt/year of lithium hydroxide over a 20-year mine life, with an initial capital expenditure of $243.8 million, according to a recently completed scoping study now under review by shareholders.

The new funds, for an undisclosed value, have been acquired via the Innovate UK Automotive Transformation Fund's (ATF) Scale up Readiness Validation competition, Cornish Lithium said in a Sept. 7 statement.

This is the fourth major government grant Cornish Lithium has received, and the second for Trelavour, the company added in an email.

The government is taking steps to build up local supplies of critical minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, including lithium, to speed decarbonization of the UK transport sector and meet net-zero targets. UK car manufacturers are under pressure to convert their production to EVs by 2030.

Cornish Lithium previously commissioned and delivered the UK's first direct lithium extraction (DLE) pilot plant at a separate project at its geothermal waters test facility at United Downs in Cornwall, the company said April 13. This plant, representing an investment of GBP4 million ($4.56 million), received GBP2.9 million from the UK government's Getting Building Fund and was supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.

DLE is an environmentally friendly process that uses a resin or filter to selectively remove lithium from geothermal waters.

Hard rock project

The Trelith demonstration plant, associated with the Trelavour Hard Rock Lithium Project near St. Austell, will comprise concentration and hydrometallurgical processing steps, the company said.

The first pre-concentration step will be via comminution and flotation to produce a lithium mica concentrate, Cornish Lithium said. This concentrate will be fed into the second processing step, a hydrometallurgical process, using the patented Lepidico L-Max and LOH-Max processing technologies which Cornish Lithium has an exclusive license for, to produce lithium hydroxide.

The plant's hydrometallurgical elements are expected to allow production of commercial samples of lithium hydroxide for evaluation by end-users such as battery producers and automotive OEMs. In addition, the demonstration plant will produce samples of byproducts such as gypsum, sulfate of potash, caesium and rubidium sulfate alum.

Cornish Lithium has already undertaken detailed metallurgical testing of these processes at pilot scale: the demonstration scale plant will now validate the commercial viability of the technology, forming a critical input to the company's feasibility study, according to the statement.

Subject to the conclusions of the feasibility study, the company intends to build a commercial lithium extraction plant in Cornwall with the production of lithium hydroxide expected to commence in 2026.

The UK is currently totally reliant on imports of lithium, the company noted.

Cornish Lithium is one of only two companies actively developing lithium mine projects in the UK. The other, British Lithium, started lithium carbonate production at a pilot plant, also in Cornwall, earlier this year. British Lithium aims to produce 21,000 mt/year of battery-grade lithium carbonate within three years -- estimated to represent about one third of the UK's requirement by 2030 -- and has received at least GBP3.4 million in UK government grants.

Supply chain

"This ATF grant... will accelerate our progress towards the commercial production of battery grade lithium hydroxide in the UK, Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and founder of Cornish Lithium, said in the statement. "A secure, sustainable domestic supply of lithium is essential for the development of a resilient electric vehicle supply chain for the British automotive industry. The award of this grant provides further validation of the Trelavour project's potential, following our major institutional shareholder, TechMet, electing to exercise its option to invest a further GBP9 million after its review of our (recently completed) scoping study."

The company will use the ATF award, along with funds from the TechMet option exercise, to construct the demonstration plant at Trelavour.

"This will be a key workstream to allow us to define the processing flow sheet for the project fully as well as enable the production of samples that can be supplied to potential end-users whether as lithium compounds or in the form of byproducts that are yet to be incorporated within the economic model for the project," Wrathall said.

The company currently has no firm offtake partners in place, it said by email.

Platts assessed lithium carbonate at $71,900/mt Sept. 6, unchanged on the day and down $100/mt on the week. Lithium hydroxide was down $200/mt on the day and flat on the week at $75,000/mt, amid thin spot market activity, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.