Cornish Lithium has found lithium – a critical component in electric car batteries – of a “globally significant” grade and the reserves are said to be huge with enough lithium in Cornwall to meet all the UK’s demand if and when the country moves from fossil fuel vehicles to electric ones. Commercial production could start within three to five years.
Cornish Lithium has said that tests indicate some of the world’s highest grades of lithium and some of the best overall chemical qualities encountered for geothermal waters anywhere in the world.
Funding has been provided by the UK government’s Getting Building Fund to build a £4m pilot lithium extraction plant and the granite in which the lithium-rich waters stretches from the Isles of Scilly 25 miles off the Cornish coast to Dartmoor in Devon.
Could Cornwall be on the cusp of becoming the battery materials hub for the UK?
