Companies from opposite ends of the country are teaming up to accelerate the supply of the key material lithium to UK industry.
County Durham-based Northern Lithium will work with Cornish Lithium delivering sources of lithium through the extraction of the mineral from geothermal waters and hard rock.
Both companies believe they have a commercially-viable source of the material, and last year the Cornish firm built the first direct lithium extraction (DLE) plant in the UK. Lithium is a key component of batteries, and the two companies hope their partnership will have benefits in accelerating production of it in the UK.
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It is estimated that the UK will need 80,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) by 2030 and 135,000 tonnes of LCE by 2040, with the material an important product for a number of net zero sectors. The companies’ collaboration will initially focus on information sharing and technical assistance, with both parties looking to develop a long-term working partnership as their projects develop.
Richard Morecombe, chairman and founder of Northern Lithium, said: “Having confirmed potentially commercially viable concentrations of lithium in geothermal waters from our first boreholes, Northern Lithium now intends to develop appropriate extraction and processing capabilities to ensure delivery of a commercial scale supply of lithium in the North East.
“Cornish Lithium’s experience and expertise, gained through its subsidiary GeoCubed, of developing suitable DLE techniques will be a huge help to us, accelerating our own development programme over the next few years. We look forward to working alongside Cornish Lithium on delivering what the UK needs most – a secure, stable and sustainable domestic supply of lithium.”
Jeremy Wrathall, CEO and founder of Cornish Lithium, said: “We are delighted to announce this collaboration with Northern Lithium which we believe will materially assist in delivering a domestic supply of lithium at scale to help meet UK forecast demand by 2030.
“Over the last few months we have developed a strong relationship with the team at Northern Lithium and feel that we can materially assist them given the experience we have gained with DLE technologies and with the extraction of lithium from geothermal waters. We believe that a collaboration between the two companies makes sense given our different geographical focus areas and our shared ambition to accelerate domestic lithium production to support UK industry.”
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