Cornwall’s mines were once a major part of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, but most have since closed down. The region is now among the poorest areas in the UK.
Many companies hope that the south-west England area can now mount a revival, and take advantage of what will likely be a worldwide scramble to secure a metal which is crucial to the energy transformation: lithium.
Cornish Lithium, which was founded in the area more than 150 year ago, unveiled this month a demonstration facility that could produce a significant portion of the UK’s supply.
Despite the recent price drop, many companies are still looking to gain an advantage in the race for the metal lithium. This is used in smartphones and electric cars.
This month , Rio Tinto announced its plans to purchase Arcadium Lithium. The deal will make Rio Tinto the third largest producer of this metal.
General Motors is also investing almost $1bn in a US Lithium mine, believing that a price drop caused by a glut supply and weak EVs sales will not continue.
Jeremy Wrathall is the chief executive officer of Cornish Lithium. The company has raised £98mn in funding since its founding in 2016. He said he remains confident about lithium’s long-term prospects, despite current low prices.
He said, “This is the most frightening time of the year but also the best because you know [the price decline] cannot last.” Rio Tinto must be seeing what they think they can see, Wrathall said.
Nations around the world are scrambling for access to critical minerals required to achieve net zero targets. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates that the world will have a lithium supply gap of 1,4mn tonnes by 2040.
There are many countries that want to reduce their dependency on China. China dominates the supply chain for many essential minerals.
In the UK, interest from industry and government in improving supply chains has encouraged companies to invest in domestic lithium, including Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata.
Experts say that the development of an industry in the United States faces many challenges, including a lack of government incentives, high prices for energy and a slow system for planning.
Nigel Reed is a former city analyst who was an early investor in Cornish Lithium. He said that it would be “hard” to justify spending $100 million without some kind of government assistance, such as a guaranteed price or additional investment.
Lithium is extracted from salty brines or rocks, like those found in South American salt lakes.
According to research by the Faraday Institution, UK battery producers will require 135,000 tonnes equivalent lithium carbonate by 2040, up from 25 000 tonnes in 2025.
Currently, there are no commercial-scale mines of lithium in Britain. The Advanced Propulsion Centre (which aims to accelerate energy transition) has estimated that the nation can produce around 56,000 tonnes by 2030.
Cornish Lithium, which is asking the government to set an annual target of 50,000 tonnes for UK production, hopes to kick-start UK production through the extraction of lithium from granite as well as from underground brines running between cracks and rocks in Cornwall.
The company, who reported a loss of £8.6mn last year, aims to produce 25,000 tons a year by the year 2030, enough for more than 500,000 cars to be electric.
The lithium price has fallen by over 50% in the last 12 months. It is now around half of the $20,000 mark that Cornish Lithium claimed was required to generate the motivation to develop new supplies. The company believes its granite mining project will be profitable at a price below this level. However, it did not specify what that price would be.
Imerys British Lithium is a joint-venture between a French multinational and a UK start-up. It plans to produce 21, 000 tonnes of lithium annually by 2030 at a nearby Cornish mining project, which will cost approximately £575mn.
Cornish Lithium will use its demonstration plant to produce samples of the lithium hydroxide that it will sell to customers, such as automakers. The company is also finalising an analysis of the costs of expanding the granite mining operation.
Varshan Gokool, chief financial officer of the company, said that costs would exceed $243.8mn in capital expenditure estimates for 2022 due in part to inflation.
TechMet, a US-government-backed investor, UK’s National Wealth Fund, and the Energy & Minerals Group, a private investor, invested a total of $67mn in Cornish Lithium. They said a second round could amount to up to $210mn.
TechMet CEO Brian Menell said that the lithium in the project would not be “at the bottom of global cost curve, but it will also not be at the top”.
Experts say that removing the lithium is just the beginning of a long supply chain. They also stress the importance of investing in the UK’s mineral processing and recycling industries to help grow the domestic industry.
Colin Church, CEO of Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining, stated that while much mining takes place in Australia and South America, you need to focus on the refinement and battery manufacturing to reduce your dependence on China.
Most lithium mines ship their material from China to be processed into lithium carbonate or hydroxide, which is then purchased by automakers.
Jeff Townsend is the founder of Critical Minerals Association. He said: “Digging out the minerals and shipping them somewhere else doesn’t increase your supply security.”
Cornish Lithium intends to produce lithium hydroxide in a UK first, according to the company. Imerys’ joint venture plans to sell and process lithium carbonate on-site. Tees Valley Lithium, Green Lithium, and Green Lithium all aim to build refineries within the UK.
Experts said that the lack of qualified workers, high energy prices and slow planning processes are all obstacles to the development of an industry based on lithium. Green Alliance said that more government funding was essential, “given the fierce competition on the global investment market”.
The government stated that it would “engage with industry closely to realise our capacity for producing critical minerals in-house”.
Evove is developing technology that will extract lithium from brines. The company said it was difficult to secure investment in the UK and turned to US-based investors. The company has raised £20mn, and is aiming for a $50mn funding round next year.
Chief marketing officer Andrew Walker said that the UK was a great place to start, but scale is an American thing.
Cornish Lithium, a rival UK group Northern Lithium, plan to extract lithium from brines by using a new technology called “direct extraction.”
Experts say that the process is used in China, but it has been applied to few other projects.
Kathryn Goodenough said that long-term forecasts of production could be difficult because “the brines are fluid” and it is hard to predict when they will be “recharged with lithium”.
Cornish Lithium intends to extract brine from a number of small sites. Each site would require capital expenditure of around £30mn and could produce a total of 15,000 tonnes of lithium by 2030.
LevertonHelm in the UK produces lithium chemicals and said that it would like to take “all of the material produced by Cornish’s (brines) project.”
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