Cornwall’s Lithium: it’s contribution to the UK’s energy transition

In October last year, a BBC headline claimed a "milestone moment" for Cornwall in the UK’s transition to clean energy. It described the opening of a £15 million demonstration plant for lithium production in the county. Ed Conway identifies lithium as one of six key resources of the Material World, in his book of the same name. Its capacity for storing energy means vehicles can get from A to B without burning fossil fuels, as well as dealing with the inherent intermittency of solar and wind. As such, lithium lies at the heart of the twenty-first-century mission to eliminate carbon emissions.

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Currently, the UK is totally reliant on imports of lithium, with the vast majority being produced worldwide by Australia, Chile and China. The UK’s aim is not to enter the global lithium race but to secure a domestic supply. This is considered vital to UK industrial strategy, in light of the Climate Change Committee’s recommended phasing out of petroleum vehicles by 2030, as well as the Brexit trade agreement requiring that by 2027 UK electric vehicle/battery imports to the EU have a majority of UK/EU content to avoid import tariffs.

In 2019, the government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution prioritised financially supporting EV manufacturing and the domestic lithium supply chain, also identifying it as an opportunity to create jobs and address regional inequalities. Cornwall, as both a relatively deprived county and home to the largest lithium resource in Europe, was an obvious site for investment. Accordingly, companies such as Cornish Lithium have secured significant government and private funding, leading to claims that Cornwall could produce enough lithium to supply more than half of the UK’s predicted demand.

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Cornwall’s lithium is extracted from two different sources, each utilising sustainable methodologies. First, from the geothermal waters naturally circulating at depth in the county: Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE). Second, from mica minerals within the granite rock underlying Cornwall: hard rock extraction.

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Lithium-rich geothermal waters circulating within permeable faults in deep Cornish mines were first discovered in 1864, when the county’s tin and copper mining industries still thrived. In 2019, funding allowed the process of accessing these waters via boreholes and pumping them to the surface, at United Downs near Redruth. This has occurred alongside the exploration of geothermal brine as a source of baseload electricity and local heat in Cornwall, another of the county’s significant green energy industries. Once pumped to the surface, lithium is then separated from the brine utilising the heat energy contained within the geothermal waters, allowing low or even zero carbon production. The aim is commercial DLE at United Downs within the next 3-5 years, once extraction methods have been optimised. Additionally, other potential DLE sites across Cornwall are being identified, with extensive mineral rights purchased by the companies involved.

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Lithium was first successfully mined from Cornish hard rock during the Second World War, when it was used as a CO2 adsorbent in submarines. The same site, an old china clay pit at Trelavour near St Austell, has seen exploratory drilling again since 2020. The ore obtained is then concentrated before lithium is extracted using the Lepidoco process, a low-energy method first developed in Australia. It’s at Trelavour that the headline-catching demonstration site is situated, with predictions of 10,000 tonnes per year of sustainable domestic lithium being produced there by 2027. In September 2024 this hard rock project was designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, to facilitate this extraction target.  

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So what will be the impacts of Cornwall’s lithium? First, could it reinvigorate a region dogged by deprivation? Companies such as Cornish Lithium are prioritising engagement with local communities, including funding projects to benefit people living close to extraction sites. There are local employment prospects too, with ancillary services contracted out to local companies and the promise of 300 jobs in the future. Cornish Lithium alone estimates they will generate £800 million for Cornwall over the next 20 years. Second, will Cornwall’s lithium ensure a future UK EV industry? Key to this will also be the development of UK gigafactories, capable of producing and assembling lithium cells and batteries. Currently, the UK has just one in Sunderland, with plans for a second in the north east and a third in Somerset. However, it’s predicted that 6 will be needed by 2030 to sustain the UK automobile industry, suggesting that significant government support is required to prevent a UK gigafactory gap that could limit the potential economic benefit of Cornwall’s lithium domestically.